Stars and Lights

In this long exposure image from top of La Palma in Canary Islands, lights from nearby villages and small towns are dramatically scattered due to the dust from Sahara. As noted by the photographer “The bright lights are from the small town of Barlovento at sea level. The dust from the desert was quite severe at that time and its effect was to prevent the normal temperature drop during the night so that the usual cloud layer closer to sea level did not form, allowing street lights at sea level to be reflected by the airborne dust. On the south side if the island, the mainly fluorescent street lights of Tazacorte and Los Llanos to the south provided the color contrast in this image.”