Astrophoto: Beautiful Encounter with the Leaning Tower of Pisa

By Nancy Atkinson - March 14, 2014 at 11:05 AM UTC | Observing
unnamed.jpg

There is so much going on in this picture – taken by astrophotographer Giuseppe Petricca -- it's hard to know where to start. Of course, there's the famous Leaning Tower in Pisa, Italy. But one evening earlier this week, a "beautiful encounter" happened, said Petricca via email.

"A wonderful -7.5 magnitude Iridium Flare, clearly visible even in the light polluted sky of the city center, photographed from the famous Miracle Square, with the Leaning Tower as a special guest," he said. "But I was lucky, because two airplanes crossed the portion I was photographing, and a second Iridium satellite was really near the bright one, but this second one did not create a flare."

Also visible in the background is the dim but beautiful Ursa Minor, culminating with the North Star, Polaris, high corner in the top left corner.

Wow.

The picture is an 8 second exoposure, f4.0, ISO 100 taken with a Nikon Coolpix P90 Bridge on a tripod.

"I was planning to do this shot for two or three days, and luckily the clouds gave way to clear sky just in time," said Petricca.

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you're giving us permission to post them). Please explain what's in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.

Nancy Atkinson

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