Turn Earth and draw the trails
Let a fixed camera watch the sky as Earth turns. Change elapsed time to grow the arcs; the stars are not circling Polaris in space.
Preparing the experiment
Illustrative modelDrag to orbit · scroll to inspect
Turquoise point: celestial pole · ivory point nearby: Polaris · Earth turns below
An illustrative view towards the celestial pole, not a replay of the session. Star positions and trail durations are synthetic; Polaris is shown slightly off the axis.