Photographing Earth At 17.000 MPH.

Is this really Earth we see in these photographs? It can’t be. There’s no blue ocean, golden continents, or clearly delineated socio-political boundaries. It must be some sort of cosmic record player…or maybe just a really great Photoshop…of something.

It´s none of this

In truth, these photos offer us a glimpse of Earth from the International Space Station. As the ISS circles Earth at roughly 17,000 miles per hour, Flight Engineer Don Pettit takes 30-second exposures with a stock digital camera, then stacks those exposures into single frames that capture 10-15 minutes on the ISS. The rotation is fast enough for long exposures to blur the earth into gilded landing strip beneath a steady rain of stars--a scene I would have never imagined as beautiful before today. Heck, it’s a scene I would have never even imagined before today.

Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit

source for article

full set of pictures

Enjoy!

reply to post by kn0wh0w




so they take pictures for 30 seconds, and then overlap all of them?



anybody can do this with a camera on earth ( anybody with enough editing skill ) ( i have no editing skill lol )


and just overlap 30 seconds of some guy walking....


i say meh....

Originally posted by SoymilkAlaska
reply to post by kn0wh0w

 

i say meh....

of course you do. your brain simply cannot handle the epicness of such a thing.
you know you're looking at a planet right??

reply to post by SoymilkAlaska

and just overlap 30 seconds of some guy walking....

I don´t think that´ll look as beautiful as this.

You obviously don´t like them very much.

I respect your opinion

I kind of have a soft spot for fancy and colourful pictures

Originally posted by yourmaker

Originally posted by SoymilkAlaska
reply to post by kn0wh0w

 

i say meh....

of course you do. your brain simply cannot handle the epicness of such a thing.
you know you're looking at a planet right??

pffff.... i see this every day ^_^

and the world doesn't look like this when you look at it, you would have to suddenly become perfectly stationary relative to the world for it to look anything like this, before it suddenly got very far away from you.

reply to post by SoymilkAlaska


Can't you just appreciate the nice pictures?

Thank you for my new wallpaper.
I think i'll play with these on photoshop also.

I appreciate great pictures and the skill it takes to produce them .
Thank you for sharing OP .


DP

Originally posted by Amadeo
reply to post by SoymilkAlaska

 

Can't you just appreciate the nice pictures?

your right.


i should enjoy them a little.


i need to be a happier person.

reply to post by SoymilkAlaska


Glad you can appreciate them a little

reply to post by kn0wh0w


Don is a resourceful and creative astrophotographer, and this is certainly a novel way to do star trail images as far as I can tell. The principle, of course, is still the same, but the conditions are quite different. Excellent job I say, thanks Don!

reply to post by SoymilkAlaska


Anybody with a camera on Earth CANNOT do this, seeing as how it was taken at the very limits of our atmosphere.

I say, amazing and I'm jealous.

Wow you rarely ever see good colour pics of Earth. Why is there so much colour????

Click here for more information.

reply to post by yourmaker


Exactly... it's a perspective thing

reply to post by kn0wh0w


Awesome photos, thanks for posting them!! S&F