The video above is a night-time time-lapse video taken from Portobello, Edinburgh looking roughly north over the Firth of Forth towards the coast of Fife, a few miles away. I made the video in March 2022.
Look at the vertical relative movement of the distant lights. I believe that this is caused by atmospheric refraction as bodies of warm or cool air rise or fall (I’m not sure which). Light rays are refracted (bent) as they pass between bodies of air at different temperatures, because air’s density depends upon temperature. It’s like the shimmering haze that you see above hot ground on a very hot day, but on a grander scale and unfolding at a more leisurely pace.
The frames were taken at 5-second intervals, which means that the video represents about half an hour of real time.