The Chajnantor Plateau (time-lapse)

Time-lapse video of the Chajnantor plateau, in Chile’s Atacama region. As the sky appears to rotate anticlockwise around the south celestial pole, the Milky Way and the Full Moon go down slowly, until they almost disappear before sunrise. Beyond the magnificent Andes Ranges, lights of distant cities can be also spotted. In addition, several penitents’ clusters can be also seen in the video. The penitents (Spanish for “penitents”) are thin spikes of hardened snow or ice, with their blades pointing towards the Sun, attaining heights from a few centimetres up to several metres. They are found in high-altitude regions, typically more than 4000 metres above sea level.