[ad_1]
At 67, Don Pettit is NASA’s oldest lively astronaut. Throughout three journeys to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) — in 2002, 2008, and 2011 — Pettit earned a repute as a extremely expert photographer, creating extraordinary photos of the ISS, Earth, and past.
Pettit, who describes himself as “an engineer by education, a scientist by career, and an explorer by coronary heart,” continues to share his superb photos on Twitter and Instagram, wowing his many followers on the social media platforms.
Take a look at this one, for instance, captured throughout ISS Expedition 30, a six-month mission that started in December 2011. Shared on Twitter on Sunday, the picture options star trails over Earth.
One other exceptional effort, shared just some days in the past, exhibits mangrove forests off the coast of India. “Sunlit, specular photo voltaic reflections from the floor of water, give an intense spot of sunshine that not solely differentiates the place water is and isn’t, but additionally can present floor ripples brought on by floor movement,” Pettit says in a remark accompanying the picture.
In one other gorgeous instance of his photograph abilities, this seize exhibits a sundown from inside the house station’s Cupola, a seven-window module from the place many visiting ISS astronauts take their Earth photos.
One other magnificence, this time displaying an erupting volcano (in close to infrared) in Argentina’s south Patagonia area. Taken by Pettit throughout his most up-to-date ISS mission, the magenta areas present wholesome forests, whereas the grey areas point out the place the eruption destroyed the environment.
Pettit says that cities at night time are one in every of his favourite sights to seize. The one under exhibits Spain and Portugal, with the brilliant lights of Madrid and Lisbon, amongst many different city areas, clearly seen.
And right here’s one other stunner from the Cupola. The lengthy publicity causes metropolis lights some 250 miles under to seem as trails.
And eventually, right here we see Pettit in motion, switching quickly between an infrared digital camera and a normal-visible digital camera utilizing a small rig that he constructed. Right here, the NASA astronaut is taking pictures via a window on the Russian service module reasonably than from the Cupola.
Be sure you check out Pettit’s Twitter account or Instagram feed for extra examples of his work.
One other astronaut to have made an affect along with his pictures is Thomas Pesquet of the European Area Company. Throughout two ISS missions — the latest one in 2021 — Pesquet managed to seize many lovely photos of Earth, although as he as soon as defined, getting these photographs required a lot preparation.
Editors’ Suggestions
[ad_2]
Source link
