Night in the Arid Desert

The Southern Milky Way and prominent stars of the Southern Cross and Alpha and Beta Centauri in moonlit night of Atacama, a narrow strip of desert along the northwest coast of Chile, extends nearly 1600 km. Atacama is one of the driest places on Earth. In many areas rainfall has never been recorded. As noted by the photographer “The partly cloudy night was a very rare occurrence in Atacama. I have regularly traveled here for night photography since 1987 and I have so far seen only three such nights!”