Paranal red sprites

First imaged in 1989, red sprites are a ghostly phenomenon that occur at high altitudes above thunderstorms. Photographed here by ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek, the unmistakable tendrils of multiple red sprites are spotted approximately 600 kilometres away from ESO's Paranal Observatory above distant thunderclouds. In the foreground sits a lone 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescope, part of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT).