When you think of astronauts famous for capturing stunning images from space, the name NASA's Don Pettit immediately comes to mind.
One of his photographs is notable for the presence of light trails, a technique in which all light sources appear as streaks of lines, generated by prolonged capture speed.
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The image in question has several fascinating details, such as capturing a sunset and a sunrise simultaneously. In addition, circular star trails are visible above Earth and, zooming in on the lower part of the image, lightning and auroras can be seen.
The secrets of photography
The astronaut himself highlights several aspects of this image. For example, he specifies that the exposure is equivalent to a 30-minute capture during an orbital night and that it was taken with a new 15mm wide-angle lens, capable of covering a wider field of view.
According to Don Pettit, 69, NASA's oldest serving astronaut, such a shot had never been done before. Thanks to the new fast wide-angle lenses, unprecedented observations are possible.
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Don Pettit explains that the circular star trails at the edge of the Earth are not the result of the planet's rotation, but of the orbital motion of the International Space Station (ISS), which depends on the tilt axis of the ISS. Additionally, cities, lightning, aurora and atmospheric luminescence are seen, both in deep greens and more subtle reds.
To take this photo, the astronaut used a Nikon Z9 camera equipped with an Arri-Zeiss 15mm T 1.8 lens. He took individual 30-second exposures with the shutter open, which he then stitched together in Photoshop to create a composition equivalent to a 30-minute exposure.
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That's not all, as Don Pettit also indicated that he was unable to perform some additional processing on the images, such as subtracting dark images or removing noise. This is due to the limitations of the current equipment aboard the station, which is eight years old and would take approximately 30 hours to complete these tasks. Additionally, factors such as the impact of cosmic rays on computers could affect the process.
The space photography experience
Don Pettit's experience with captures of this type is extensive, with numerous images of light trails taken aboard the space station. He has also documented other events in orbit, such as the return of the Polaris Dawn mission on September 15, where he photographed SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule as it approached Earth at high speed after completing the first entirely civilian spacewalk.
Don Pettit also photographed other memorable scenes, such as the reflection of moonlight in the Amazon basin of South America, which he describes as simulating “flowing silver serpents” or “claws of incandescent gold.
Article written in collaboration with our colleagues from Xataka.
