Northern Record for Southern Cross

Stars of the southern constellation Centaurus are captured over Canary Islands in a dark night at the top of La Palma (2426 m), from near Roque de Los Muchachos Observatories, where some of the world’s largest telescopes are located. Quite surprising 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). They are the bright stars right at the horizon. 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.