Image Description and Details :

The image is of the Hanle Monastery under Bortle 1 skies and the Perseids. Hanle monastery is a 17th century gompa of the Drupka lineage of the kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism located in the Hanle valley of Leh District, Ladakh, India. Hanle lies at an altitude of about 14500ft and is also home to the Indian Astronomical Observatory . The location of the monastery and the observatory is highly sensitive due to its proximity to the disputed Chinese border and access is restricted to a very few. Image was taken on the nights of 10 and 11-Aug-21. A blue hour foreground was first shot and then when the quadrant rose, 20 images of the night sky were stacked with the meteors blended in.

Copyright: Vikas Chander and Dorje Angchuk