Fireworks and the Moon Dazzle in Spectacular Photo

Fourth of July fireworks celebrations will light up the sky across the United States tonight, but one veteran astrophographer in Italy has already captured a dazzling view of an explosive night lights display that also co-stars the moon.
Night sky photographer Giuseppe Petricca of Pisa, Tuscany in Italy captured the dazzling view of a fireworks display and the quarter moon on June 16 during Patron's Saint Day celebrations in the city.
"Yesterday in Pisa was the Patron Saint's Day, and I managed to catch fireworks, launched from the middle of the river Arno, exploding near the first quarter moon!" Petricca told SPACE.com in an email. "Really a nice composition!"
Petricca said he used a Nikon P90 Bridge digital camera on a tripod to snap the photo, and then used image processing software to clear away noise in the image and enhance details of the moon's surface.
The patron saint of Pisa is Saint Ranieri. The city honored Ranieri with annual fireworks or bonfire displays since the 15th century, according to the tourism website Pisa Online. The Luminara, a tradition that decorates parts of Pisa with candlelight to honor Ranieri, dates back to the 19th century.
Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments on the image, including equipment used, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.
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Tariq is the award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001. He covers human spaceflight, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. He's a recipient of the 2022 Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting and the 2025 Space Pioneer Award from the National Space Society. He is an Eagle Scout and Space Camp alum with journalism degrees from the USC and NYU. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.