Explanation:
The night sky is always changing.
Featured here
are changes that occurred over a six hour period in late 2014 June behind the dual
6.5-meter
Magellan Telescopes
at
Las Campanas Observatory in
Chile.
The initial red glow on the horizon is
airglow,
a slight cooling of high air by the emission of
specific colors of light.
Bands of airglow
are also visible throughout the time-lapse video.
Early in the night, car headlights flash on the far left.
Satellites
quickly shoot past as they
circle the Earth and reflect sunlight.
A long and thin cloud passes slowly overhead.
The Large Magellanic Cloud rises on the left,
while the expansive central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy
arches and pivots as the
Earth rotates.
As the night progresses,
the Magellan telescopes swivel and stare as they explore
pre-determined patches of the night sky.
Every night,
every sky changes differently,
even though the phenomena at play are usually the same.
