Our Star

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	Our Star
Subject: Sunrise Date: 1998 Time: ~8:30am Location: Provo, UT Lens: 50mm F-stop: ? Exposure time: ? Filters: 8-point diffractor Film: Kodak Max ISO/ASA: 800 About the Title: Which star is closest to us? is a trick question. One would expect an answer like Proxima Centauri, but it's really Sol, the sun. It's such a simple fact that it often gets overlooked -- there's only one star in the Solar System. We are circling an average, middle-aged star that would otherwise seem unimportant. --But it is the most important star that we know about, for it is the only one we know of to support life, let alone intelligent life.		I was walking to church one morning when I saw the sun just beginning to peak over the very tip of the mountain. I figured a moment like that should be captured forever, so the next morning I was up with my camera, ready and waiting. It's amazing how fast the sun rises once it begins. I took an entire roll of film of this mountain, with hardly any pauses between shots, and this was the only picture that came out. The one immediately preceding is underexposed as the sun was not yet high enough, and in the one immediately after the sun is too high and so it is overexposed. But it was definitely worth it.