astro_pettit

astro_pettit OP t1_irmna48 wrote

Large Magellanic Cloud taken from ISS during my first mission, Expedition 6 in 2003. This was taken when Space Station was flying XPOP attitude, a solar inertial attitude that allowed the solar panels to point towards the sun without tracking. Essentially, the station itself was the tracking mechanism. A solar inertial attitude is about one degree per day different from a stellar inertial attitude thus for 30 second time exposures the stars remain as pinpoints. Since about 2006, ISS has flown LVLH attitude, where one side remains pointed nadir towards Earth at all times and time exposures yield stars that are arcing trails.

This photo is a four image stack, taken with a Kodak-Nikon 760 (an early professional digital camera, a Nikon body with a Kodak FX-sized sensor), Nikkor 58mm f1.2 lens, ISO 800, with each exposure of 30 sec.

More astrophotography can be found on my Instagram and Twitter. Please let me know if you would like to see more here for Reddit!

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