Christmas songs coming from a nearby bar, Moon and Venus decorating the sky over the Viverone Lake: what a perfect atmosphere for a festive season evening!
Tag Archives: Venus
One of my images selected for National Geographic Daily Dozen
I am happy to share with you that my shot “Moon and Venus over Monviso” has been picked for National Geographic Daily Dozen (December 2011 – Week 1) 
If you like you can vote it here: two of the photos selected during the month will end up on the printed version of the magazine!
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La mia foto “Moon and Venus over Monviso” è stata selezionata per la sezione Daily Dozen (December 2011 – Week 1) del sito di National Geographic International Se vi piace la foto potete votarla qui: due delle foto selezionate nel mese verranno pubblicate sulla versione cartacea della rivista!
The Moon and Venus shine over the Monviso
This evening, just after sunset, the crescent Moon (showing a beautiful earthshine) and the brilliant Venus put on a great show over the Monviso. The mountain (3,841 m – 12,602 ft) is the highest peak of the Coattian Alps and its pyramid-like shape if visible for large areas of the Nortwestern regions of Italy. It also famous for hosting the source of the Po, the longest river in Italy.
Technical details: Canon Eos 5D Mark II with Sigma 150-500mm lens set at 174mm. Exp: 3.2 sec; F/5.6; ISO: 500
- Featured on LPOD
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Venus, Mercury and Mars in the predawn twilight
The planet show goes on: this morning I caught the close encounter between Venus, Mercury and Mars (it appeared very dim among the clouds)
My first photo of the planet gathering: Venus and Jupiter less than 1° apart
This morning the sight of the predawn rendezvous Jupiter and Venus, was really great. The two brightest planets were less than one degree apart in the twilight colored sky above the Langhe region (some 60 kilometers from Turin, Italy). Unfortunately, Mercury and Mars were not visible as to dim and (probably) covered by the low clouds.
Technical details: Canon Eos 1000d; Exp: 2 sec; F/5.6; ISO 400
The Moon meets Venus over the Langhe
This morning, a couple of hours before dawn, I moved to La Morra, a village some 50 kms from Turin with a superb view over the Langhe (the area in the Northwest of Italy wordl-wide famous for its wine).
The goal of my early wake was to catch the conjunction between a waning crescent Moon and the blazing planet Venus (the morning star) and the show did not disappointed me: the pair looked awesome in the sky painted by the twiligh colors!
Othe pictures of this session are here:
Venus and Mercury in the pre-dawn twilight
After many days of cloudy weather, this morning I did not want to miss the rare occasion of clear sky so one and a half before hour dawn moved to a hill with an open view over the eastern horizon of Turin to try to capture Venus and Mercury just few days after their greatest elongation from the Sun (that occurred on the 8th and 9h of January, respectively).
When I arrived, Venus was already very high in the sky, shining at a -4.4 magnitude!, directly above the reddish Antares in Scorpius, whereas Mercury was still immersed in the pre-dawn twilight glow but easily detectable with naked eyes. “Venus now appears higher and brighter in the morning sky than at any time in more than 3 years,” says Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael E. Bakich.
This beautiful morning scene was worth an early wake!
HAPPY 2011 !!!
HAPPY 2011 with a compilation of my recent images 
FELICE 2011 con una compilation di mie astrofoto
NASA – APOD for my “Two crescents” photo
Yesterday I had the honour to have one of my last images featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day on the famous NASA‘s web site. This is my second APOD, after the “Not a Blue Moon“ publication on the 1st of January 2010, and excitement in receiving the “heads up” e-mail from Jerry Bonnell was extremely high as the first time!
Yesterday’s picture shows the 5 November close conjunction between two crescents: the Moon and Venus (full story here), and has been proposed together with a similar image taken by Babak Tafreshi, founder of TWAN: same Moon, same planet, two different views from two different places on planet Earth
Finally, a big thank goes to my friend Ferdinando for his very useful advices on the location!
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Moon and Venus …and an incredible sunrise…..above a sea of clouds
This morning I drove 50 kilometers from Turin in search of clear skies to observe …and photograph…the close conjunction between a lovely slide crescent Moon and Venus, just before dawn. The chosen observing site was “Colle Braida”, a mountain pass of the Alps at 1,000 meters above the sea level.
I arrived at the site when the dawn twiligh was starting to paint the sky….. but the great show was put in place by the fog clouds that were completly carpeting the valley below! After capturing the “phase to phase” conjunction I was really looking forward for the special guest……the Sun…..to enter the scene ……and this is what I had the fortune to see:
Other images of this lucky session are here: Continue reading
