An amateur astrophotographer managed to capture a 230-km floating ring above his hometown in Italy.

Valter Binotto managed to capture the otherworldly sight over his hometown of Possagno in Italy.

The sparkly, firework-like phenomena are known as sprites, with the large doughnut-shaped rings referred to as Elves.

The Elves are an upper-atmospheric lightning event sometimes caught in long-exposure images above distant thunderstorms.

They are a type of transient luminous event that occurs in the lower ionosphere, roughly around 90-100 km above the Earth, directly above powerful lightning storms.

Binotto says he has spent almost a decade tracking such high-altitude displays and secured a first image in March 2023 above a storm hundreds of kilometres away from his home. He went on to capt

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