Daily Archives: February 10, 2013

International Space Station_Passing by on_02-09-13_0654pm to 07:00pm EST
The International Space Station Pass over on 02-09-2013 at 06:54pm EST until 07:00PM EST I captured a few shots of the pass over to create this animation as the ISS made a nice pass over John Bryan State Park Observatory in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I was hanging out with my Astronomy club (MVAS) during members night, I tested out my new Wide field Tracking platform The CG-4 mount, with Dual Modiefied DSLR cameras. The Animation Video clip shows the ISS, coming out of daylight from the South Southwest....and crossing into darkness...the high cirrus clouds were chasing the ISS. The ISS at its brightest point got to -3.1 Magnitude, brighter than Jupiter, which was at Mag. -2.5, although there was another pass ~ 90 minutes later. I recorded this one as it was the brightest pass of the two. Midway through the video clip I changed views to show the ISS as it buzzes Orion #39;s head and then splits the Gemini Twins. You can really see the ISS brightening as it passes. The first Camera was a Modified Canon Rebel Xsi 8mm fisheye F8 lens, ISO 400, I used exposures ranging from 8 seconds to 18 seconds..to help compensate for the rapidly fading light of Dusk... The still shot of the ISS above the trees was the last image I took with a 2nd camera, a modified Canon 40D 17mm lens, ISO 400, 27 second exposure, it was just below Castor and Pollux in Gemini heading East about to go below the Trees line around 7:00pm EST. Note there is another object moving through the first part of the ...

By: John Chumack

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International Space Station_Passing by on_02-09-13_0654pm to 07:00pm EST - Video

KSP - Minmus Space Station - Minmus Station Lander
In this episode I attach the new lander to the base and show how well I dock in the early morning... I should really practice more before making me episodes lol. Kerbal Space Program or KSP is a game that allows you to construct rockets and probes and explore celestial bodies. Its up to you how the future of the kerbal #39;s space program is achieved by either success or Jebidiah #39;s wife beating you to death. Version of KSP 0.18.2

By: goose79335

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KSP - Minmus Space Station - Minmus Station Lander - Video

NASA TV/collectSPACE.com

Apollo 17 moonwalker Gene Cernan, left, gives a thumbs up to the astronauts on the International Space Station from Mission Control in Houston on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013.

By Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor

HOUSTON The last man to walk on the moon made an unexpected call to the most recent men to live in space this week during a visit to NASA's Mission Control room.

Gene Cernan, who in December 1972 commanded Apollo 17, the sixth and final lunar landing mission, was touring the Johnson Space Center here with some friends when he was invited by flight controllers to talk live with Expedition 34 commander Kevin Ford and flight engineers Chris Hadfield and Tom Marshburn in the U.S. Destiny laboratory on the International Space Station, 260 miles above the Earth.

"I didn't know I was going to be able to do this," Cernan told the station's crew during the visit on Feb. 5. The moonwalker, who was using a phone receiver to talk with the astronauts in space, could see Ford, Marshburn and Hadfield on the large screens at the front of the control center room.

The ISS residents were in turn able to see Cernan via live streaming video on one of their laptop computers.

"I'm personally proud," Cernan commented. "I'm at the age now where most of you were probably in diapers or knee pants when I went to the moon, but at least what we did worked because it inspired you to do what you're doing." [Apollo 17 Moonwalker Calls Space Station (Video)]

"I think I was 12 when you came home from the moon for the last time," Ford responded, "and you did inspire us for sure, just like whole world, frankly. Every place I go in the world, they know NASA because what you guys did back then that long ago."

Elbow room in space The space-to-ground conversation, which aired on NASA's television channel and was streamed through the space agency's website, showed Ford, Marshburn and Hadfield floating inside the orbiting laboratory with room to spare. And they were inside just one of the space station's dozen modules, which they share with three other crewmates, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy, Evgeny Tarelkin and Roman Romanenko.

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Last moonwalker calls space station

There is a reason the phrase "shooting in the dark" refers to things that are difficult to do - and night photography is no exception. To account for low-light image scenarios, a photographer needs a steady tripod, but aboard the International Space Station, a traditional tripod isn't going to cut it. Thankfully, the European Space Agency, or ESA, developed NightPod for the crew's cameras.

This astronaut photograph of Liege, Belgium, at night was taken using the NightPod camera mount aboard the space station. The mechanism allows astronauts to capture images of the Earth at night with greater clarity and control than previously possible from orbit.

"The challenges of low-light photography from orbit - for example, the likelihood of blurry images because of the ground motion - have always frustrated astronauts," said Cynthia Evans, International Space Station associate program scientist for Earth Observations.

"Over the years, astronauts have experimented with different solutions, including high-speed films and manual tracking to compensate for the ground motion. The NightPod camera mount allows the crew to successfully track the Earth using low-light camera settings."

NightPod incorporates an ESA Nodding Mechanism, which is an electro-mechanical mount system for digital cameras designed to compensate for the motion of the station relative to the Earth. This high-tech, motorized tripod can compensate for the more than 17,000 mph (27,000 kph) speed of the station and the motion of the Earth below-no easy feat!

The crew enters the station's orbit and attitude into NightPod, enabling the instrument to automatically track a specific location on the ground and keep the target in frame for optimal focus. Since the system can be set to run automated for up to six hours, the crew can literally take pictures in their sleep.

To get an idea of just how clear images using NightPod are, look at how detailed the brightly lit core of the Liege urban area appears. It lies at the center of a network of roadways - traceable by continuous orange lighting extending out into the rural and relatively dark Belgian countryside.

For a sense of scale, the distance from image left to right is approximately 43 miles (70 kilometers). The region to the southeast of Verviers includes agricultural fields and forest; hence, it appears almost uniformly dark at night.

The image of Liege was acquired on Dec. 8, 2012, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 180 millimeter lens and the NightPod, and is provided by CEO investigators and the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory at Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 34 crew. It was cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts were removed.

Installation of NightPod was completed on Feb. 24, 2012, by astronaut Andre Kuipers, and some of the earliest images appear in this ESA story.

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NightPod Images Bring Earth to Light From Space Station