Alpen-Panoramen - Panorama: La Grotta di Leonardo

Details
Location:	Grotta del Moncodeno (1640 m)	by:	Stefano Caldera
Area:	Bergamasker Alpen	Date:	24 Mar 2012

This time I virtually take you inside a mountain: specifically, inside the Grigna Settentrionale. Here there is one of the largest underground carsic system of the Europe. One of these cavities, the "Ghiacciaia di Leonardo", or "Grotta del Moncodeno" or "Giazzera" is probably the famoust. Known since Leonardo da Vinci's time (he visited it personally, I'm guessing him rappelling..), it presents a beautiful complex of ice sculptures, that reaches its best in spring. Probably this day was too early, only few sculptures were present, but new ones growing were visible.

A 360° pano from down here is complex, starting from the acces, the cramped slippery place and for the poor light inside. I have to study a better illumination too, for the nex time.

Canon EOS 7D
EF 17-40 F/4 L
36 images
F/6.3, 30s, 17mm

this presents a vertical crop, the original pano is 360x160°

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Comments

This is a beautiful and technically very special picture. To get a feeling for the vertical dimension of the icicles - how many meters down from the entrance hole?
Herzlichst Christoph

2012/03/25 19:16 , Christoph Seger

Thanks! The big sculpture is around 2, 2.20 meters. The difference in height from bottom of the cave to the top of the visible icy stair is around 5-7 meters. The elements in the bright part are not trees outside, but ice columns. I think, from outside to the bottom, there are 15 meters. I'm preparing a full version for Mountain Panoramas; I think with the VR viewer the proportions will be easy to find out.

2012/03/25 19:41 , Stefano Caldera

Yet another one that can only be fully be appreciated when seeing the large version on mountainpanoramas. Looks like a hard piece of work to get this accurately stitched. Cheers, Martin

2012/03/27 20:38 , Martin Kraus