Lake Atitlan at Night

A starry night of Lake Atitlán, “Lago de Atitlán” located in the highlands of Guatemala. Stars of Orion and Taurus stand high above the sky with Sirius (the brightest star in the night sky) to their left besides the band of the Milky Way. Also note Canopus, the second brightest star in the night sky, below Sirius and near the southern horizon. Atitlan is renowned as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world and with a depth of 340m it’s the deepest lake in Central America. The lake is volcanic in origin, filling an enormous caldera formed in an eruption 84,000 years ago and there are three volcanoes on its southern flank, all above 3000 meters high. Atitlán is further characterized by towns and villages of Maya civilization. The visible artificial lights in this image are coming from the villages at the lake shore.