Star Trails: Incredible Long Exposure Photographs Shot from Space

Star Trails: Incredible Long Exposure Photographs Shot from Space

Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit relayed some information about photographic techniques used to achieve the images:

“My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.

Over the past two months NASA has been releasing a number of wonderful long exposure photographs taken by astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station. While there are many photos like these taken from the perspective of the Earth’s surface, Pettit’s images are unique in that they incorporate the passing blur of entire illuminated cities, aurora, and the sporadic flashes of lightening from thunderstorms. Check out many more photos from the series here. (via petapixel)

www.thisiscolossal.com...

www.flickr.com...

creativecommons.org...

whoa. that last one is super trippy!! very cool.

Don Pettit just returned to earth the other day, which is a real shame for me since he was probably the most prolific and inventive astrophotographer to fly in space yet. His ingenuity allowed him to take parts he found around the station to build a barn door style tracker powered by an electric drill. Brilliant! This was his second stay on the station, his third visit to space (he's now racked up over a year of flight time).
science.nasa.gov...

reply to post by ngchunter

Wow. Awesome link with more info on the photographer. Thanks

"Lately we've been having some extraordinary auroras," he reports. "They meander like big green amoebas crawling across the sky. Sometimes there is a faint touch of red layered above the green. These lights are constantly changing. They swirl. Bright spots come and go. Green blobs transform into upward-directed rays topped by red feathery structures."

reply to post by stanguilles7


He says he uses stacked 30 sec exposures so the title is not quite correct but s&f anyway.

Originally posted by wmd_2008
reply to post by stanguilles7

 

He says he uses stacked 30 sec exposures so the title is not quite correct but s&f anyway.

Interesting. Thanks for the clarification.

Wow, a-some pics, that is really nice and creative photographic work. Hope he continue with this when he goes up again.

Thanks for the post.

Super neato! Tron! Thanks so much for the link. I grabbed most of them.

ETA: I just went to the link ngchunter provided. Love the added info. He has some great pics. The London image is stunning. I also noticed the following image (sorry for wandering off topic, but I'm hoping someone will have a quick answer to my question): What's that smoke ring sort of cloud formation in the top, right of center portion of the photo?

reply to post by HolographicPrincipal


From its shape and proximity to the aurora, I'll bet it's Lake Manacougan, an ancient asteroid-impact feature in Canada.

Good catch!