The photographers travel far and wide (even to space) to capture the magic of our incredible galaxy on display in the night sky. 🌌 The Milky Way galaxy has an estimated 100-400 billion stars in it, with at least that number of planets.
Now in its 8th edition, this collection features images from Chad, Northern Argentina, Socotra Island, Namibia, Australia, New Zealand, and more.
Below are some jaw dropping images from the collection. Photos used with permission.
“One in a Billion ” – Don Pettit“Cosmic Fire” – Sergio Montúfar | Volcán Acatenango, Guatemala“Tololo Lunar Eclipse Sky” – Petr Horálek | Cerro Tololo Observatory, Chile“Boot Arch Perseids” – Mike Abramyan | Alabama Hills, CA, USA
“Blosoom” – Ethan Su | Hehuan Mountain Dark Sky Park, Taiwan“The Night Guardians” – Rositsa Dimitrova | Easter Island, Chile
We love the simplicity and openness of this vacation home in Chile, built with shipping containers and an open sheltered roof between them.
It shows the ingenuity and resourcefulness of repurposing structures, and we imagine the popularity of shipping container homes is only going to increase.
Known as Casa Abierta, the vacation home features twin containers that are painted black and clad in timber. Large windows have been cut into the sides and ends, bringing in natural light while also offering protection from the hot Chilean summers. The interior is clean and minimal, but with a sense of warmth and comfort.
The oversized roof spans the entire space, including a large central outdoor space featuring seating, dining, and fun touches like swing chairs. Via Uncrate:
Photographer Jesse Echevarria has a great series that explores one of the driest, most remote deserts on the planet. The Atacama is located in a narrow strip along the Pacific Ocean in South America, mostly in the country of Chile. The desert is arid and has a stunning desolation to it. It’s been compared to the climate of Mars, with lifeless soil and often used in movies and TV that need a Mars-like setting. Dry yet full of character, this photo series definitely makes us want to get on a plane and explore for ourselves.
In a five days driving trip, we went from Antofagasta through Paranal Observatory, Hand of the Desert, San Pedro de Atacama and Los Flamencos National Reserve. The nights were extremely cold, dry and quiet, while the days were colorful and filled scenic landscapes. Out of all the trips I’ve done, visiting Chile has been the most rewarding experience I’ve had since I started landscape photography. Everything about this place is out of this world.
The llamas, the starscapes, the unfamiliar vistas all appeal to our adventurous nature. This fascinating desert is begging to be explored.
Chilean freelance photographer Francisco Negroni has a stunning series showcasing seriously angry skies, alive with plumes of volcanic smoke, lava, and shocking threads of lightning. The images are so violent and bombastic, it’s easy to think they couldn’t possibly be real. Like they’re something out of a science fiction movie. But it’s a real phenomena known as a dirty thunderstorm, caused by frictional charging, when ash, rock and other ejecta collide, creating massive amounts of static electricity. It would be a thrilling thing to experience such a storm, and we’re excited to see Negroni’s exploration of this type of photography. Even more impressive to us, is the more than 90 active volcanoes in Chile alone. Via Colossal:
When I go outside to take photographs, I try to leave with the images in my mind: I imagine what I am going or want to achieve that day in that place… Although many times I don’t get what I imagined or thought would be a good photograph, and I get others that I couldn’t have imagined and they are much better, it’s strange. But almost always I work in a direct documentation, with an idea in base, but trying to always obtain an understanding of something more difficult for the spectator.
Standing against the impressive backdrop of the Andes mountains, this Bahá’í Temple by Hariri Pontarini is designed to last for hundreds of years, and welcome people of all faith backgrounds into it’s stunning interior. 13 years in the making, this sculptural beauty uses state-of-the-art engineering and design to withstand any earthquake, including seismic isolation pads that can take a serious shaking. The 90-foot tall sculptural structure houses a complex exoskeleton that supports nine torqued sails of white marble and white glass panels. These photos by Aryeh Kornfeld do justice to this very special building, overlooking the city of Santiago. Via Azure Magazine.
For those unfamiliar with the Bahá’í Faith:
The Bahá’í Faith is an Abrahamic religion teaching the essential worth of all religions, and the unity and equality of all people. Established by Bahá’u’lláh in 1863, it initially grew in the Middle East and now has between 5-7 million adherents, known as Bahá’ís, spread out into most of the world’s countries and territories, with the highest concentrations in India and Iran.
Having just finished reading Aku Aku, Thor Heyerdahl’s seminal work from the 1950’s, there’s an urge to see more of the mysterious and wildly remote Easter Island. Known worldwide for it’s huge, breathtaking Moai (or statues), Easter Island stunned archaeologists and scientists, who didn’t understand how a primitive culture on a remote island could have created such huge, heavy statues out of rock, with no use of metal tools or wheels. Heyerdahl led a major scientific exploration of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the 1950’s, and literally unearthed many groundbreaking secrets on the Moai, including the surprise that the statues had tall bodies, buried deep underground.
All in all, 887 giant statues have been discovered or unearthed, with many more found in partial-sculpted form. The statues also had elaborate red stone “top knots” on their heads, precariously perched more than thirty feet up, but have fallen or been destroyed over hundreds of years.
A highly recommended read, Aku Aku delves into the mysterious Moai, but also the polynesian peoples of Easter Island, their traditions and superstitions, and much more.
This painting by William Hodges in 1775 shows the statues in their more upright, fully realized form, with red top knot additions.
Explorer Thor Heyerdahl, after he and his team excavated one of the Moai to find that it went far below ground, hiding a full torso.
Thor Heyerdahl on a return trip to Rapa Nui, Easter Island.
Patagonia, like Iceland, remains high on our travel list, a place of supreme isolation and natural beauty. The sheer scale of the glaciers, the endless mountain peaks, the color palette of the surroundings, all make us want to jump on a place and fly to the bottom of South America. Photographer Andrew Ling has a beautiful gallery of photographs from an adventure he took there. His journey took him to Grey Glacier in Lago Grey, a place we’re jotting down for our own future adventure. Our planet sure is a gorgeous place. Via Behance:
A cloud of ash billowing from Puyehue volcano near Osorno in southern Chile, 870 km south of Santiago, on June 5, 2011. Puyehue volcano erupted for the first time in half a century on June 4, 2011, prompting evacuations as it sent up a cloud of ash that circled the globe.
Out of an estimated 1,500 active volcanoes around the world, 50 or so erupt every year, spewing steam, ash, toxic gases, and lava. In 2011, active volcanoes included Chile’s Puyehue, Japan’s Shinmoedake, Indonesia’s Lokon, Iceland’s Grímsvötn, Italy’s Etna, and recently Nyamulagira in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Hawaii, Kilauea continues to send lava flowing toward the sea, and the ocean floor has been erupting near the Canary Islands. Collected below are scenes from the wide variety of volcanic activity on Earth over the past year.
Shinmoedake peak erupts between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in this aerial view seen on January 28, 2011. Ash and rocks fell across a wide swath of southern Japan straddling the prefectures of Miyazaki and Kagoshima, as one of Mount Kirishima's many calderas erupted, prompting authorities to raise alert levels and call on for an evacuation of all residents within a 2 km (1.2 miles) radius of the volcano.
Lava spews into the air, higher than the treetops, near the Kamoamoa fissures between Napau Crater and the Pu`u `O `o crater on Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, on March 7, 2011.
Lava pours from from a fissure just after daybreak and cascades out of sight into a deep crack near the town of Volcano, Hawaii, on March 6, 2011. Scientists monitored a new vent that has opened at the Kilauea volcano, sending lava shooting up to 65 feet high.
Lightning cuts through an ash cloud as Shinmoedake peak erupts, as seen from Takaharu Town Office, Miyazaki prefecture, Japan, on January 27, 2011.
Indonesian worshipers descend from the crater of Mount Bromo in East Java province on January 28, 2011. The worshipers gave offerings to the god of the mountain, praying for the safety of local people.
Surfers paddle past icebergs covered in ash from the Grímsvötn volcano eruption, in the glacier lagoon at the base of Vatnajokull, Iceland, May 26, 2011.
A view of the ash plume above the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano chain near Entrelagos, on June 5, 2011. The volcano, dormant for decades, erupted in south-central Chile, belching ash over 6 miles (10 km) into the sky, as winds fanned it toward neighboring Argentina, and prompted the government to evacuate several thousand residents, authorities said.
Lightning bolts strike around the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain near southern Osorno city, on June 5, 2011.
Houses and trees are covered by volcanic ash on the bank of Nahuel Huapi Lake in Villa La Angostura in southern Argentina, on June 19, 2011, after the nearby eruption of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain.
Dead fish float among debris and small chunks of pumice in the Nilahue river after the eruption of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Rininahue, southern Chile, on June 8, 2011.
Mount Lokon spews hot lava and volcanic ash during an eruption in Tomohon in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province, on July 14, 2011. Mount Lokon sent an ash cloud as high as 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) in the north of Sulawesi island, prompting panicked residents to flee the agricultural area, a government official said.
An eruption from Mount Nyamulagira in eastern Congo sends lava high into the air on November 11, 2011.
A man walks as the Tungurahua Volcano (background) spews ash, in Cotalo, Ecuador, on November 29, 2011. Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spewed red-hot rock and ash as officials upgraded their eruption warning level to orange and some at-risk communities began evacuations.
Tungurahua Volcano is seen from the town of Guadalupe, Ecuador, on November 28, 2011.
View of the fumarole of Tungurahua volcano, from the town of Cotalo, Ecuador, on November 29, 2011.
