Starry starry nights

Hundreds of stars appear to spin in the sky above Mount Bromo – an active volcano in East Java, Indonesia.

This time-lapse composite photo was taken by Malaysian photographer Grey Chow – who has captured stunning night-time images across South East Asia.

This image, of an abandoned boat underneath the Milky Way, was taken on a trip back to Chow’s hometown, Terengganu, which looks out to the South China Sea.

Here the Milky Way can be seen above a vegetable farm in the Cameron Highlands area of Malaysia.

The Milky Way is the galaxy in which the Earth sits. Our Solar System is in one of the spiral arms of the galaxy – which is shaped like a whirlpool and made up of at least 100 billion stars.

The next image was taken overlooking Indonesia’s Kawah Ijen volcano complex – just before sunrise – where the craters emit rivers of blue light from burning sulphur.

Chow says the first time he saw the Milky Way it was like seeing a special effect from a film.

“Being able to capture the real thing – the beauty of the night sky – is just amazing,” he says.

The next photo was taken high above the low clouds from the peak of Malaysia’s Mount Kinabalu, on the island of Borneo.

The last photo is also a view from Mount Kinabalu.

Chow says he hiked, with all his camera equipment, for five miles (8km) to reach the summit which is 13,435ft (4,095m) above sea level.

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