Rapa Nui Stargazers

I visited Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in June 2019 with two friends, one being fellow TWAN member Jianfeng Dai, before going to mainland Chile for the total Solar eclipse on 2nd July 2019. Easter Island lies outside tropical zone, which makes the weather rather variable with high chance of clouds. But when clouds decide to part, the scenery may turn out to be really amazing. On June 24th evening, after spending the sunset and evening twilight time at Hanga Roa, main town in the island, we went to Ahu Akivi, due northeast of the town. This panorama shows the Milky Way from Sagittarius via Scorpius, Ara, Lupus, Centaurus to Carina, with the seven moais of Ahu Akivi constantly gazing at the southern sky.