“Corfu Nightscapes – A Company of Stars” is a captivating, five-minute time-lapse video featuring 60,000 photos of Corfu, taken between 2010 and 2014 by photographer Vassilis Metallinos.
The music in the video was composed by John Miliadis.
Learn more about this amazing video through Metallinos own words, taken from his interview by CNN in 2014.
What inspired you to create this gorgeous video?
This is my fifth time-lapse video so far and it was inspired by my love for Corfu island, my birthplace – its long and rich history, breathtaking landscapes and my passion for the night sky.
It’s a dreamy, magical thing to look up in the sky and watch the stars, our neighbors, traveling to distant lands!
What makes Corfu a good place for stargazing?
Corfu’s night sky is not perfect but we still enjoy dark skies and see lot of celestial objects within the city walls of the Old Town of Corfu -a UNESCO World Heritage Site- next to our monuments.
What could be more beautiful than seeing Saturn’s rings or clouds and Jupiter’s Great Red Spot from the Esplanade Square, one of the largest squares in Europe with Venetian fortifications and French and English buildings?
Corfu also has an important astronomical heritage.The first Astronomical Society of Greece was founded in Corfu in 1927 by French astronomer Felix Lamech.
Both Lamech and the Corfiot astronomer Ioannis Fokas have a lunar crater named after them and Fokas also has an eponymous Mars crater.
What equipment do you use?
A photo camera that can capture long-exposure images, a tripod and a remote control for the camera.
What are your favorite shots in the video?
There are so many memorable ones.
The one with the big fireball at 2:39 that blinded us and turned the sky blue or the one with the honeymooners and the lighthouse at 3:49 are good examples.
But my very best is the one with the Supermoon (when the full moon is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit) and the Old Fortress of Corfu at 3:21.
The best places to photograph Corfu are …
To capture the old town of Corfu in the photograph, the best angle is from Kontokali Bay, about seven kilometers northwest of Corfu town.
Other beautiful places with a nice dark sky include Chalikounas Beach (Lake Korission) in southwest Corfu and near Aggelokastro Castle just above Palaiokastritsa Bay.
Read the full interview at here
Learn more about Bill Metallinos and his work on his website www.metallinos.net
