The Plemmirio Lighthouse Under the Perseid Sky

The image was captured on August 13, 2026, at the Plemmirio Marine Protected Area near Syracuse, Sicily. It shows the Plemmirio Lighthouse beneath the summer night sky, with the constellations of Andromeda, Cassiopeia, and Perseus, as well as the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), approximately 2.5 million light-years away. A Perseid meteor is also visible on the left side of the frame, crossing the sky in a brief flash of light.

I wanted to create a visual connection between the familiar coastal landscape and the immense scale of the Universe. The lighthouse represents a permanent, human-made reference point, while the stars and distant galaxy reveal a much larger cosmic perspective. The Perseid adds a fleeting element to the scene, capturing an instant that would otherwise disappear almost as soon as it occurred.

Camera: Nikon D750 (full-frame DSLR)
Lens: Samyang 14 mm f/2.8
Star tracker: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2

The sky images were calibrated, aligned, and stacked to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and reveal faint celestial details. The tracked sky was then blended with the static foreground, captured without tracking, in order to achieve a natural representation of the scene while preserving the details of the stars, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Perseid meteor.

The RAW files were developed in Adobe Lightroom Classic, while the final composition and adjustments were completed in Adobe Photoshop. Exposure, contrast, color balance, and local adjustments were applied carefully to preserve the natural appearance and atmosphere of the original scene.