his image of the Moon was taken by amateur photographer Dylan O’Donnell
as the International Space Station passed by at 28 800 km/h. At such
speeds the weightless research laboratory was visible for only about a
third of a second before returning to the dark skies.
Dylan
captured the moment in Byron Bay, New South Wales, the eastern-most
point of Australia, where the absence of larger towns offers low levels
of light pollution.
The image was taken on 30 June 2015 at 19:54
local time with the Space Station flying 400 km above the Pacific Ocean.
A conventional camera was placed behind a 2300 mm / f10 telescope and
Dylan took as many pictures as possible during the Station’s brief
passage and hoped for the best.
Five images of the Moon taken
before and after the Station passed by were processed using freely
available astrophotography tools to improve sharpness, a process called
stacking. Lastly, the colours were enhanced to bring out the Moon’s
colourful surface geology.
This is the first picture of the
Station Dylan has published, commenting, “I take many types of pictures
but the International Space Station is a wonderful target and one I’ve
wanted to capture for a long time.”
Spotting the orbital complex
yourself is easier than you might think. It can be seen and photographed
without special equipment as it passes overhead. As it moves so fast,
the hard part is to know when and where to look. ESA’s tracker shows you where the Station is at any time and you can sign up to receive alerts for your neighbourhood here.
Once
you know where the Space Station will be, it is best to wait for dawn
or dusk. It looks like a very bright star or aircraft gliding through
the sky. For less advanced pictures without using the Moon as a
background, use a tripod and set the shutter speed to a long exposure of
up to a minute. The Station will always arrive from the west and will
appear as a white streak in the photograph.
Source: ESA.
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