A short film by Christoph Malin: This film is a tribute to the International Space Station Program as well as Dr. Don Pettit, NASA Astronaut and ISS Astrophotographer. It can not be emphasized enough, how Dr. Pettit’s innovative photographic work and his passion has changed the way we see earth from space. Accompanied with great info on the challenges of [...]
Post Tagged with: “Astrophotography”
Photograph of Spy Satellite IGS-1B Captured in Its Final Orbits
IGS-1B is a Japanese Information Gathering Satellite that was launched on March 28, 2003 together with its companion IGS-1A on board a H2A rocket. Both satellites were delivered into a 486 x 491 km orbit with an inclination of 97 degrees. The satellites orbited within 37 minutes of each other. In 2007 it was announced by officials that IGS-1B was malfunctioning [...]
Dragon Rocket Seen from the Ground
On May 22, 2012, the Dragon C2+ spacecraft (also known as COTS Demo Flight 2) was launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40. The Dragon was the first commercial cargo craft to perform a docking to the ISS. The spacecraft lifted up atop the two stage Falcon 9 rocket. A few days after the launch, I [...]
Astronaut Don Pettit Recreates the Stargate Sequence From 2001
The blog onorbit.com noticed a nice parallel between Don Pettit’s last photo-shoots and the famous “Stargate Sequence” of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odissey”. ”My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes,” said Pettit. “However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out [...]
Beautiful View of Stars from the ISS
With all the wonderful observation imagery compiled by NASA’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, the stars can get left behind. Alex Rivest compiled the imagery against a London PM music soundtrack. Star-trails processed using StarStaX. Credit: NASA / JSC / Editor – Alex Rivest / Music – London PM Staff WritersMore Posts
Nanosail-D Analysis: Observer Point of View
Nanosail-D was a NASA space sail prototype, part of the FASTSAT project. The sail reentered the atmosphere on September 17, 2011 after 240 days in orbit. According to NASA, the spacecraft performed beyond expectations. Reentry occurred before my last attempts to observe the sail: at the time there was in fact no information available about the status of the sail, so my attempt [...]
Progress M-14M Rocket Photographed From the Ground
UPDATE: Some clear color views of the Soyuz-U rocket 3rd stage, which orbited the Progress M-14M. The rocket will have reentered and decayed in meantime. Analyses of the obtained imagery suggest a relatively steady behave of this rocket compared to much more turbulent tumbling observed with other Soyuz launches. This was fairly well confirmed by the reasonable steady visual appearance [...]
Space Safety Magazine, Issue 2, Winter 2012
Inside the Winter 2012 Issue of the Space Safety Magazine Cooperating with China: Space Safety is the Key! Psychology of Space Exploration Five Hundred Days in Isolation China’s Foundations in Space 5th IAASS Conference: USAF General G. A. Feest Opening Speech Astrophotography and Space Debris Will Anyone Recover Apollo 13’s Plutonium? Revisiting the Liablity Convention Water and Bombs Suborbital Safety: A New [...]
Fregat / IRIS: Upper Stage with Inflatable Panels
I have photographed many rocket upper stages, as they remain in orbit for a long time. Most satellites have solar panels, but I never had a chance to photograph an upper stage with some kind of panels mounted on it. Until now. On September 17, 2009, the Russian technology experiment Fregat / IRIS was launched as a secondary payload on a Soyuz [...]
Update: Final View of ROSAT From The Ground
October 19 update: In the picture below, a special false-color processing to increase certain contrasts. Note the visible shadow of the main body (the actual telescope) on the solar panels, seen from an angle as the satellite passed 51.4 degrees. The shift is cleary visible. A very difficult observation on this small object, even at that distance. ——- I have been actively trying to [...]
