The above movie shows the shifting position of the Sun at the same time each day throughout the course of an entire year. The Sun moves north and then south again, driving the seasons, while shifting slightly east and west. The result is a figure-8 shape in the sky known as an analemma. The video shows the seasons change, with snow coming and going and trees leafing out, changing color, and then dropping their leaves.

The dots in the sky are digital photos of the Sun taken through a special solar filter at 8:02 a.m. EST roughly every two weeks starting on December 20, 2005 as part of a year-long project to photograph the Sun's analemma using a single piece of film. The unfiltered photos of the surrounding landscape and the glaring Sun were taken as separate exposures a few seconds later after removing the solar filter. (More information about taking the images is here.) The photos of the Sun and the landscape were later digitally combined to produce this video. ©2007

(Higher resolution versions of this video are available. Please note that all images shown here are copyrighted and must not be copied on your web site without my written permission!)