That’s not a moon! That’s…
I’ll show myself out…
And check out his reasons for making his photos public domain! Yes Its Free
Good on you mate! You win my admiration for the day!
This is absolutely boootiful and putting it in the public domain is making me feel better for adding it to my space themed desktop wallpapers that i have on rotation. Consider this my credit - thank you, kind sir.
I don’t come to BB for the space-themed posts as a rule, but I gotta give it up–this pic is effing sweet!
Clearly that’s not the ISS. It’s a Tie-Fighter.
And that’s not the ISS…
Treat Izzy with the respect due her.
Humanity’s survival depends on her.
I’m glad he actually mentioned his equipment. It turns out that that telescope is actually not any more expensive than a lot of nice full frame lenses are.
It’s a good practice and it should be done more often…
If you see the ISS before dawn it looks huge, but it seems to have a schedule that is a lot harder to catch than the old Skylab space station. Are their orbits that much different?
Dang photobombers gotta try to ruin everything.
And another person saying thank you for posting this. Awe-inspiring in every way.
This is really cool to see. Thanks for posting!
skylab orbited pretty low if i remember right. (now opening a new tab…) 146 miles (235 km). the iss is at 249 miles (400 km).
to answer your question… turns out they share/d about the same orbital period and angle, despite the difference in height. ( 93ish minutes to circumnavigate at 50ish degrees inclination.) looks like the iss travels a bit faster to make up the difference.
maybe there’s something important about that particular orbit, maybe to stay more easily in touch with all necessary earth-side sites.
The orbital mechanics does’t work entirely that way. The altitude is linked with the speed; change one, change the other. Want to go up? Accelerate. Want down? Brake. You can choose either speed or altitude but not both, for a stable orbit.
i think we’re on the same page…
the orbital periods and inclinations are so close between the two stations, it almost seems like that’s some sort of ideal loop for stations ( or houston? )
my thought was, nasa wanted the iss higher so it doesn’t fall / fail as quickly as sky lab did. so they upped its speed.
What a marvelous photo! Reminds me my own experience and especailly the fact that you have no idea if you did it or not until after it happens.
Here is my video of it, not through a telescope and not fast enough (25 FPS only) to freeze the ISS so wonderfully as in this picture but you will see how fast it is
