A stunning time-lapse recorded by the captain of a Boeing 777-300 offers a rare cockpit perspective of the Milky Way and Southern Cross constellation set against a series of violent electrical storms.
Swiss Air pilot Ralf Rohner, 50, shot the nighttime footage while the passenger jet was cruising at an altitude of 10,000 metres, between Zurich and Bangkok.
While most passengers on the plane were sleeping, Mr Rohner captured the vast wonder of the Milky Way over northern India.
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"There is quite a bit of thunderstorm activity normally in that area," Mr Rohner told 9news.com.au, explaining intense flashes of light in the distance.
After 28 years of flying, the veteran Swiss Air captain remains "very much in awe" of the night visuals he's treated to on his travels.
The first half of his time-lapse shows the Milky Way core above various active thunderstorms in the region of Lucknow, India.
Later, the Southern Cross and the stars Alpha and Beta Centauri slowly setting below the horizon can be seen in Mr Rohner's footage.
One of the threats pilots need to avoid on a night flight is thunderstorms, Mr Rohner said.
At night, thunderstorms are only visible on the aircraft's weather radar and sometimes by intermittent lightning.
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Mr Rohner's time-lapse, which compressed about 90 minutes of flight time into 40 seconds, has had more than 250,000 interactions on Facebook, "a lot of attention for my standards," he said.
The spectacular starry skies paired with flickering thunderstorms had captured people's attention, he said.
"This combination really looks stunning."
Mr Rohner said only certain atmospheric conditions and flight paths open up such prime shooting conditions.
"There shouldn't be too much moon, so it has to be around a New Moon, and it's more interesting if there's a Milky Way visible," he explained.
"So it depends on the season and the flight direction."
Mr Rohner's camera was fixed to the cockpit window with suction cups and surrounded by an anti-reflection skirt.
"After I installed it, I just pushed the button and let it run."
When not flying around the world, the Swiss father of nine-year-old twins is an avid landscape and night sky photographer.
Contact: msaunoko@nine.com.au
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