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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956_:

A Photograph With an Eight-Year Exposure Was Taken With a Beer Can:

A week after the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony, a Master's student at the University of Hertfordshire placed a film-lined beer can on the side of a campus observatory and seemingly at some point forgot about it. Eight years later, in September 2020, there was a picture on the inside of the can with one of the longest exposure photographs ever taken.

Regina Valkenborgh was experimenting with pinhole camera techniques when she created this project, according to a University of Hertfordshire statement. She decided to build a simple, makeshift camera using a can to capture the rising and setting of the sun for an indeterminate length of time. It ended up sitting there for eight years—according to the university, 2,953 arced trails of the star were captured on the film inside of the can. This is believed to be the longest-exposure photograph taken.

"To me the most exciting thing is that this rudimentary way of photographing in this technology-driven era still has value," Valkenborgh said in an email to Motherboard. "Yet in all its simplicity it has the capability of 'capturing' a photograph way beyond the slowest shutter speed you can set on any digital camera. The images are also totally unique, the light photons travel through the actual pinhole and touch the paper inside the can. You can compare it with your footprint in the sand as opposed to drawing a foot with a stick. The foot actually touched the sand and likewise the sun's rays actually touched the paper."

Officially titled "Days in the Sun", the image documents the sun's path in the Northern Hemisphere's sky. The highest arches coincide with the Summer Solstice (i.e. the longest day of the year), and as time goes on, the lowest ones indicate the Winter Solstice (the shortest day). Breaks in the light trails indicate cloudy days and saturated spots imply sunny ones.

Original Submission