Milky Way Rises above Canaries

The Milky Way rises over Canary Islands and the Atlantic Ocean in a dark night at the top of La Palma (2426 m), besides the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, where some of the world’s largest telescopes are located. The central bulge of the Milky Way in the constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius are in the middle, Aquila is at left and Centaurus is at right. Quite surprising at the southern horizon (right end) is appearance of iconic southern stars Alpha and Beta Centauri (also known as Rigil Kent and Hadar) and most of the Southern Cross (except for Acrux at the southern tip of the cross). It’s very rare to spot them from this northern latitude (~28 degrees north). What helped photographer to achieve this was fine planning and gaining about one degree of extra visibility below the theoretical horizon because of high altitude.