This perfect proposal was written in the stars.
A New York couple is engaged after the man asked the question before Comet NEOWISE, only visible every 6,800 years.
John Nicotera had planned to propose to his girlfriend Erica Pendrak during a trip to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon this summer, Syracuse.com reports, although the adventure was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The stars lined up epically for John Nicotera’s proposal to Erica Pendrak.
(Timothy Leach)
Fortunately, the stars lined up epically for the plan to continue. Nicotera, who identifies himself as a “space junkie,” invited his partner to see the NEOWISE comet with him when it became visible from the Empire State Building this month.
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“We had other things during the week and that was really the only night that worked for us,” he recalled. “At the time, I knew I needed the clouds to be far away, the sky to be clear, and Mother Nature to be friendly to me.”
Nicotera enlisted the help of his friend, photographer Tim Leach, to capture photos of the life-changing moment on July 18, Insider reports.
Meeting up with Leach and his girlfriend near McCauley Mountain in Old Forge for the celestial event, the couple posed for some photos before Nicotera signaled that he was about to kneel down.
“At that moment I knew I needed the clouds to be far away, the sky to be clear, and Mother Nature to be friendly to me.”
(Timothy Leach)
“John was looking at the images on my camera after a few tries and whispered, ‘I’m going to propose, can you get a photo?’ My answer: “Don’t move for about 7 seconds,” Leach wrote on her website, “The result was a slightly unfocused and noisy image that was a perfect moment.”
She said yes, and the rest is history (from social media).
Nicotera shared the striking images of the silhouette on Twitter, in a post that has since gone viral with over 8,000 likes and congratulations from astronaut Garrett Reisman.
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“Our story is spreading across the country and the world. It is amazing to see and have good news,” the bride-to-be told Insider.
The future boyfriend expressed thanks to his photographer friend, grateful that Leach “froze the best moment of my life so far.”
“It is not just a memory. I can relive it for the duration of that photo, and we will always have that,” Nicotera said.
The Utica couple, both teachers, hope to get married next summer.
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The comet, also known as C / 2020 F3, was discovered on March 27 by NASA’s NEOWISE (Near-Earth Wide Field Infrared Reconnaissance Explorer) space telescope.
“It takes about 6,800 years for the comet to go around its long, stretched orbit, so it will not visit the inner solar system again for many thousands of years,” NASA explained on its website.
NASA notes that the comet’s closest approach to Earth was on July 22, at a distance of approximately 64 million miles.
It is not expected to return for almost 7,000 years.
Fox News’ James Rogers, Chris Ciaccia and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
