Arbor Sub Astris: Star Trails on Cissbury Ring

Returning to Cissbury Ring on March 1st, 2025, I wanted to capture a completely different perspective of this ancient West Sussex hill fort under the stars. While my earlier 'Annulus' photograph showed the iconic lone tree with Polaris centered above it, this time I shifted my vantage point to create a more dynamic composition—the tree positioned off-center with the star trails sweeping diagonally across the frame.

Cissbury Ring's history is remarkable—this 65-acre Iron Age hill fort was constructed around 300 BC, but the site goes back even further to Neolithic flint mines from approximately 4000 BC, some of the deepest in Britain. At 184 metres above sea level on the South Downs, you can see across the Sussex coastal plain to Worthing and the English Channel.

The conditions that night were exceptional—crystal-clear skies with no moon. I upgraded to the Canon RF 15-35mm lens at 17mm, capturing 274 separate 20-second exposures over 96 minutes. Each frame at ISO 640 and f/2.8 gathered maximum starlight. Later I stacked all 274 images, revealing Earth's rotation as these elegant arcs centered on Polaris, the North Star.

The title 'Arbor Sub Astris' means 'Tree Under the Stars' in Latin. The faint orange glow from Worthing's lights adds warmth to the cool celestial tones. What I love is how this captures time at multiple scales—4,000 years of Cissbury Ring history, 96 minutes in the March cold, and the 23 hours 56 minutes of Earth's rotation.

When you look at this photograph, I want you to feel that perspective—standing on Cissbury Ring where Neolithic miners and Iron Age builders once worked, watching the cosmos wheel overhead as it has for billions of years, captured in 274 frames on the South Downs.