Astrophoto: Angel of the North Gets a Halo

By Nancy Atkinson - November 16, 2012 09:01 PM UTC | Observing

Halo (Comets and Starry Sky Edition). Credit: Peter Greig ( )

What a stunning shot! It took much of the night, but astrophotographer Peter Greig has now given this angel a halo, in the form of star trails. The

Angel of the North

is a gigantic sculpture located in Gateshead, England. It is a 200 ton steel sculpture of an angel/being with airplane wings that measures 20 meters (66 feet) in height, with wings measuring 54 meters (177 ft) across -- making it as tall as 4 double-decker London buses with a wingspan as big as a jumbo jet. The only mystery is, who is sitting at this angel's feet?

The sculpture was designed by Antony Gormley and was completed in 1998. You can find out more about it

here.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com