Telescopes on La Palma

From the photographer: “In this still frame from a time-lapse video you can see most of the observatory telescopes that are placed on top of the Roque de los Muchachos on La Palma, west of Tenerife in the Canary Islands (Spain). Typical for this location is the sea of clouds which can be seen in the foreground. However, there is one special thing to witness in the video, just a few minutes after sundown: Below the elevation of the observatory the clouds ‘swirl’ in a meteorological phenomenon known as a ‘Karman vortex street‘! Apart from an uncountable number of stars you can see the central band of the Milky Way standing tall on the left side of this still frame. Polaris is near the middle of the image, so the stars will all appear to rotate around Polaris (the north star) as the video plays.” – © Pascal Christian