One of my most carefully planned photographs. The stars of Orion set while the Moon rises and lights up the mountains near Turin, Northern Italy, on the early morning of 10 March 1999. Exposure was 140 minutes on Ektachrome 200 at f/8.
To get landscape details and prevent overexposure of the sky I needed a snow-covered landscape, the moon rising after the beginning of the exposure, and of course a dark sky. There were only two suitable nights per month during winter, but it was a mild winter, and weather was poor on every "window" for three months. I had almost given up when an unexpected cold wave in early March, followed by a few clear nights, allowed me to take this picture with some snow still on the Alps.