The first of a few photographic studies of this beautiful 35m tracking station I had the privilege to photograph this weekend for ESA! Pictured here facing east, the antenna was in operation communicating with the GAIA mission and slowly tracking across the sky! GAIA is doing detailed measurements to create a 3D map of the Milky Way.
This image is now also on ESA's homepage and available free with Creative Commons!
Photo details .. 4 x 30s f2.8 ISO 1600 Tokina 11-16mm
Credit: D. O’Donnell/ESA – CC BY-SA 3.0