Stunning star trails streak across the night sky and reflect on the segmented primary mirror of one of the telescopes of the ASTRI Mini-Array in this image taken at the Teide Observatory, on the island of Tenerife. The telescope in the foreground is ASTRI-6, one of the nine Cherenkov telescopes for gamma-ray astronomy installed at the Spanish site as part of the ASTRI project.

The image was created using the star trail photographic technique, which makes the apparent motion of stars caused by Earth’s rotation visible. By pointing the camera toward the south-east, the stars do not form the classic concentric circles around the North Star, but instead cross the sky as long, slightly inclined and almost parallel streaks, creating a dynamic pattern of light cutting diagonally across the night sky.

The photograph was taken by Giovanni Lombardi (INAF) using a Canon EOS R mirrorless camera with a Canon 16–35 mm f/2.8 lens mounted on a fixed tripod. The star trail effect was obtained by capturing a continuous sequence of 40-second exposures for a total time of about one hour and thirty minutes. The images were then combined in post-production using a stacking technique, allowing smooth and continuous stellar trails while minimizing digital noise and sensor overheating.

The final result is a striking visual representation of the motion of the celestial sphere above one of the most advanced instruments in contemporary astronomy, where the dynamics of the cosmos and the technology developed to explore it meet in a single scene.