Chile Time-Lapse: 'Hierbas Buenas,' From Stéphane Guisard, Brings Atacama Desert Sky To Life (VIDEO)

Astrophotographer Stéphane Guisard, renown for his images and time-lapse videos of the night sky, last month released a spectacular video taken in Chile's Atacama Desert.

We've seen some amazing videos of the starry sky, but what we love about this one is that Guisard not only captures some of the constellations and stars visible in the Southern Hemisphere, but also some of the ancient rock engravings, or petroglyphs, in part of the Atacama Desert.

And, not to mention, it's set to Tchaikovsky's classic "Swan Lake."

Phil Plait, also known as the Bad Astronomer, explains in his Discover Magazine blog some of the constellations and stars seen in the video.

From The Bad Astronomer:

I love how this opens, with the bright star Betelgeuse hanging over the rocks, quickly joined by the Orion Nebula -- seen upside-down to northern hemisphere sensibilities. Look at the bottom right star of Orion's belt once it clears the rock (around 28 seconds in): that fuzziness around it is real, home to the Horsehead Nebula.

(Check out The Bad Astronomer's entire post for more details about what's in the video.)

Staring at the sky isn't just a hobby for Guisard. According to The World At Night, an organization that promotes celestial photography and videography, Guisard works at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which is also located in the Atacama Desert.

According to NASA, the Atacama Desert, which is extremely dry, "is, in microbial terms, the most Mars-like environment on Earth." Earlier this year, however, a NASA satellite captured images of rare winter snowstorm, the largest in the area in about 50 years.

Take a look at the video at the top and share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

(Via The Bad Astronomer.)

Comments

[captain33]

09:59 PM on 12/18/2011

A short word about the etchings would be in order here or was everyone looking at the sky and missed them?

[vobox3343]

11:03 AM on 12/12/2011

Nothing more beautiful than our universe. Too bad we can't focus on the opportunity we've been given to dwell here on Planet Earth.

[larrykat]

10:25 AM on 12/12/2011

IMO this calls for the greatest poem of all time:

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
BY WALT WHITMAN

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

[palindrom]

05:27 PM on 12/13/2011

If you do astronomy for a living, as I do, the sky just becomes more beautiful, not less.

[larrykat]

03:29 PM on 12/14/2011

I agree... but you may be missing the point.

[lensamy]

09:56 AM on 12/12/2011

Breathtaking! I grew up staring at the sky and the things that you get to see are just fascinating....

[vobox3343]

11:09 AM on 12/12/2011

I'd do the same. From cloud formations to the stars, just amazing. Unfortunately, there are many kids out here who've never learned to appreciate and be excited and interested in that that we don't have to pay for - Sad.

[naweavers]

09:55 AM on 12/12/2011

Glorious!

[Sandmanj]

09:41 AM on 12/12/2011

Just... Wow.

[Mitchman57]

08:02 AM on 12/12/2011

Hey, Huff Post. How about getting on-board with the video compression bandwagon?

This and so many other vids are loading DREADFULLY slowly.

We don't all get cable or Fios y'know.

[Alexey Braguine]

06:12 AM on 12/12/2011

The Atacama Desert is one of the most mysterius and spectacular places on earth.

[European1919]

05:38 AM on 12/12/2011

Fascinating.

[lightist]

04:40 AM on 12/12/2011

"I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell." Walken the magnificent

[Jim Pasterczyk]

04:21 AM on 12/12/2011

Sure beats Fox!

[StephenJK]

03:40 AM on 12/12/2011

Wait, that orange blob at the beginning is what?

[wrobbins]

04:27 AM on 12/12/2011

That would be the Orion Nebula.

[StephenJK]

04:45 AM on 12/12/2011

I didn't know Nebulas were visible with the naked eye from earth. I've never seen one with a camera or naked eye.

[StephenJK]

04:47 AM on 12/12/2011

Correction: should be Nebulae.

[maxfax]

11:40 PM on 12/11/2011

Spectacular photography thanks for sharing the experience.

[Blodo]

11:35 PM on 12/11/2011

Was that a spiral galaxy at 2:06?

Just awesome. One day long in the future, our descendents will gaze out from some of those distant stars and wonder about the legend of their ancestral home.

[palindrom]

07:07 AM on 12/12/2011

Yes, I think it's probably Andromeda (M31) -- even though that's far to the north, you can still see it from northern Chile. I had a hard time matching the star patterns to confirm it, though, so it might be something else., but I can't think of anything else that big and bright that it could be.

[LMPE]

11:27 PM on 12/11/2011

Now THAT'S a sight for sore eyes!

"Swan Lake", like "Hungarian Rhapsody #2", is one of those songs that can make anything cool.