Saturn and Jupiter, on the right, flanked by the strip of stars of the Milky Way frame the snow-capped Tre Cime di Lavaredo, in the Dolomites, while two people silently contemplate the show: the astronomical photo of the day, Apod (Astronomy Picture of the Day), from NASA.
Awarded the shot of the astrophotographer Giorgia Hofer, of the Italian Amateur Astronomers Union (Uai), at her fourth Apod.
'Listening to silence' is the name chosen for his photo taken on 8 October, by Hofer, who is part of the group of astrophotographers, Pictores Caeli.
The image portrays her while with her companion she contemplates the silence of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“Saturn and Jupiter above the Cima Grande di Lavaredo shone like two diamonds,” says Hofer.
“Further west a bright Milky Way galaxy that only the darkest skies can offer,” he adds.
The two gas giants of the Solar System for the next two months, explains the amateur astronomer, "will approach in the sunset sky, until the Great Conjunction of 21 December 2020".
That is, when the two planets will find themselves aligned with the Sun and, writes Hofer, “as close as they have never been in about 400 years, since 1623”.
At a distance that will appear "about a fifth of the angular diameter of the full Moon," he specifies.
To find the same conditions, concludes Hofer, "we will have to wait until 2080".