An extended publicity picture of the Massive and Small Magellanic Clouds, two small galaxies that orbit the Milky Method Galaxy. Photographer and energetic NASA astronaut Don Pettit has captured a protracted publicity picture of two satellite tv for pc galaxies that neighbor the Milky Method from his vantage spot onboard the Worldwide House Station (ISS). The Massive Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud are some 200,000 light-years away however orbit the Milky Method Galaxy, residence to Earth’s photo voltaic system. To seize the photographs, Pettit introduced a do-it-yourself monitoring system that enables him to take long-exposure images. The ISS strikes at 17,500 miles per hour, which means a monitoring system is required to lock onto a celestial goal. Throughout his first mission to the ISS in 2002, Pettit invented a barn door tracker from “stuff laying round” which is a tool that counteracts orbital movement in area permitting photographers to seize sharp photos of cities at night time. “Earlier than I made this barn door tracker on the station you’ll do a handheld image of cities at night time with perhaps a one-second publicity and so they’d all the time be blurry significantly in the event that they had been performed with a telephoto lens,” Pettit informed PetaPixel in an interview final 12 months. “This was the primary time it allowed anyone to get sharp photos of cities at night time.” Pettit additionally captured this star path picture displaying airglow, Starlink satellites, and totally different modules of the ISS.
Capturing neighboring galaxies isn’t the one epic area shot Pettit has been taking. On December 3, he shared a star path picture on his X web page. “I feel these [star trail photos] are a mix of each science and artwork,” he writes on the platform previously often known as Twitter. “This one exhibits atmospheric airglow, yellow-green at 120km and the fainter higher crimson at 400km, star trails shifting in arcs on the left and straight strains on the correct, Starlink satellites flashing daylight off their photo voltaic panel, the Cygnus cargo automobile (left), my Soyuz automobile (heart), and the Russian laboratory module MLM (proper).” Pettit additionally captured a singular view of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth as they flash daylight towards the ISS, a picture that may solely be captured in an orbital setting. Cosmic fireflies. Really, these are Starlink satellites momentarily flashing daylight in direction of @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/rOKUdLlP3f — Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) December 1, 2024 Pettit, 68, is the second-oldest NASA astronaut to ever go into orbit and is the area company’s oldest energetic astronaut.
Picture credit: NASA/Don Pettit
