Milky Way Over Mexico

The arc of the Milky Way is photographed above Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, a mountain range in the Baja California peninsula, Mexico. Domes housing various telescopes of San Pedro Martir observatory are visible in the foreground. Officially known as the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional or OAN it is Mexico’s National Astronomical Observatory, first established in Mexico City in 1878 and finally moved to this dark and high altitude (2800m) location in 1967. The yellow glows on the left are light domes of neighboring towns. The faint green theme all across the horizon is airglow, natural emission of the Earth upper atmosphere, visible from ideally dark locations and appears more prominently when solar activity is high.