It’s twinkle, twinkle with a whole new twist. Gaze up at Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, and it seems to change colour as its light gets refracted through our atmosphere. This unique photo of the dog star in the Pakistan sky captures 2 seconds of this multicoloured twinkling.

Amateur astrophotographer Syed Roshaan created the photo by focusing a telescope sharply on Sirius, and then moving the telescope around while taking a long-exposure photograph with a DSLR camera.

The colours of the image were not enhanced digitally, although Roshaan did boost the contrast and brightness to make the track more visible.

Roshaan says he was surprised at the vivid colour he captured, which revealed beauty in effects that are normally the astrophotographer’s nemesis. “This was the first time I could see the effects of the distortion of our atmosphere in a way that would not make me curse them,” he says.