Tapolca Basin Spring Nightscape

Spring nightscape in a moonlit night of Tapolca basin near Lake Balaton in Hungary. The volcanic hills of the basin appear in the background of blossoms and rapeseed flowers. In the sky Mars is in the middle, shining at its brightest during opposition (closest to the Earth, happen every 26 months). Bright northern star Arcturus to its upper left. On the right winter constellations of Orion and Canis Major (with bright star Sirius) approached the western horizon. Click on the second photo to see the labels for the stars and the volcanic hills.

For centuries poets, novelists and painters have been calling Badacsony (that includes Tapolca basin) the most beautiful landscape in Hungary.