War of the Worlds In Iowa?

Looking not unlike a Martian fighting machine in H.G. Wells' 1898 novel, War of the Worlds, this
old style water tower, located at the Linn County Care Center at Highway 13 and County Home Road north of Marion, Iowa juts skyward with the planet Mars and the star Spica to the right. Was this fighting machine awaiting instructions from its home planet? In reality, this was Mars opposition night, with the red planet being the brightest in our skies since December, 2007. Mars shone at -1.48 magnitude, while the nearby Spica, the principal star in the constellation Virgo, glowed at 0.96. The top photo was shot at 11:44 PM CDT, Tuesday, April 8, 2014 and is a 21 second exposure at f/7.1, 2000 ISO. The bottom image was shot at 11:50 PM and was a 21 second exposure at f/4.5, and 400 ISO. The illumination of the water tower was caused by lights from nearby buildings in the facility. Air temperature was 36 degrees F.