Posted on 01/14/2014 3:46:09 PM PST by BenLurkin
. Juan Gonzalez-Alicea of Sociedad de Astronomia del Caribe in Puerto Rico captured this great image of the International Space Station crossing in front of the crescent Moon on Dec. 6, 2013. He used a Canon 7D with a 300 mm lens, and actually got a fair amount of detail.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Speaking as a photographer who still thinks according to 80's technology (if that makes any sense)that photo would have been very difficult to get.
According to this reference, it takes the ISS about 1.65 seconds to traverse the face of the Moon (or the Sun, both of which are the same angular size when viewed from Earth's surface).
I like the way the angle of the sun is such that both the Moon and the ISS are strongly illuminated.
As the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis was approaching the International Space Station on Saturday evening, February 9, 350 kilometres above the Earth, amateur astronomer Libor míd was standing in the garden of his house in Plzeň, western Bohemia, with his camera and telescope ready. He had less than four minutes to take a series of photos of the docking manoeuvre that is how long it took the International Space Station with the approaching shuttle to fly over sky above Plzeň before it disappeared over the horizon. Libor míd says that timing is crucial in this kind of photography.
What is unique about the photographs is that I managed to capture the very moment the Atlantis space shuttle approached the International Space Station. The manoeuvre is very brief first the shuttle is too far, and after the rendezvous the shuttle is difficult to distinguish from the space station itself.
The Czech Astronomical Society, associating both professional and amateur astronomers, voted Mr míds photos the winner of the February Photo of the Month contest. I asked Marcel Bělík, an astronomer at the Úpice observatory in eastern Bohemia and a member of the photo contest jury, what is so unique about the Atlantis manoeuvre photos.
And, thanks to Flickr for enabling us to see it in incredible detail at an astounding 0.5 megapixels.
Next week, a tight zoom on some craters in the Sea of Tranquility, rendered on a postage stamp.
See "Přílet raketoplánu k ISS"
http://home.zcu.cz/~smid/satelity/satelity.htm
Good thing we don’t have those pesky space shuttles to block the view anymore. s/
La nave Enterprise de la FUP es silueteada por el Sol.
Thanks BenLurkin, extra to APoD.
What are those solid, hinged outside hatches over each window for? They expecting hail?
LOL.
There are many dangerous objects floating around in space (at speeds of 30,000 or so miles per hour), including space junk and micro-meteorites.
Bttt
It may sound strange, but I had a friend who invented a wierd cannon. It could shoot “mini objects” such as paint chips, micro-rocks, etc. at 40,000mph to test the integrity of the Space Shuttle “windshield” in a collision.
Look up the velocity of a standard .50cal bullet. Multiply that out to miles per hour, then you’ll go. . .like, wow. . ., a paint chip??? DANG!!!!!!!
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