NASA and some very brave astronauts are currently on a mission to perform maintenance on the aging Hubble space telescope. The mission itself is to repair broken parts and add in a new camera and other new pieces to help extend the life of the telescope.One amateur astronomer wasn't content with only reading about it online or possibly watching a live feed. He decided to take a picture of the repair mission by himself from down here on Earth.
What you see below is Atlantis as it is about to capture Hubble from orbit. These impressive and stunning photos were taken by Thierry Legault's from Florida and the backdrop in the picture is the Sun.
For those of you who want to know how the picture was taken: "the image shows the faraway scene as viewed through a Takahashi TOA-130 refractor telescope (focal length 2200mm) and a Baader solar prism, which gives the Sun its muted look. Strapped to the back of the telescope, the 5D was set to ISO 100 and a 1/8000 shutter speed, the camera's extreme low and high settings, respectively [Edit: woops, the Mk II actually does ISO 50]. Legault used the free online Celestial Observer tool to calculate the best time to shoot from his location."
A true mark of mastery and beauty not only for mankind as this orbital ballet takes place but also for the knowledge and skills that were required to capture these great photos.
It would if the ship was on the sun.. Here is a cool video showing a much better comparison. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nroo-i8t8vg
The source says that the transit lasted for 0.8 seconds only!
kinda sorta but not really, gotta remeber that the shuttle is much much closer to us than the sun making it ( the shuttle) appear larger as compared to the sun than it really is
Not really, because the ship is far more closer to the Earth than it is to the Sun. The Sun is much, much larger than it really looks from these photos.
Of course. But one must really stress just how unimaginably larger the sun is than anything you can imagine. Tens of thousands, if not millions of times larger than you might get the impression of from this image.
Which is certainly saying something, when this image already makes the shuttle look insignificant.
why are correcting him? because that doesnt give you an accurate idea of the relative size of the sun and the ship. the sun is much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much , much larger. you could put 333000 earths inside the sun. and in the picture you can actually SEE the ship.
The problem is when you try to explain how big the sun is in terms of the earth is that that people have a hard time grasping just how big the earth is. The size of the shuttle is something someone can grasp.
Since when does "a nice idea" mean "an accurate statement"?
How about you people learn to read and comprehend before you gang up on somebody to correct them on their mere idea.
Yes, the size is alright here, if you assume the shuttle is about as large as the entire Earth.
The article says Florida.
Ahh I missed that.
or a 1000mm lens with a 2x teleconverter...but for this kinda stuff, a telescope is better.
Too soon?
Solar filter on the eye piece. Hydrogen one i believe.
Radish™
Please read the article again before posting....
Please read the article again before posting....
Im just want to confirm, because without solar spot, flares and so on many other artifact, this photo is absurdly fake.
Currently, you can't take a common photo to the sun, instead scientist take a photo using a different light (and ray) spectrum at the cost of missing details
Example:
Please read the article again before posting....
Im just want to confirm, because without solar spot, flares and so on many other artifact, this photo is absurdly fake.
Currently, you can't take a common photo to the sun, instead scientist take a photo using a different light (and ray) spectrum at the cost of missing details
Example:
again reading is your friend, from the article "For those of you who want to know how the picture was taken: "the image shows the faraway scene as viewed through a Takahashi TOA-130 refractor telescope (focal length 2200mm) and a Baader solar prism, which gives the Sun its muted look.
"
Reading is your friend...
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html
Wow only a 5inch newtonian refractor. I'm currently building a 6inch f3.3 reflector, i need a good camera!
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/3923/sun.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/3923/sun.jpg
^^; hehe
I'm interested in knowing.
Edit: Nevermind, a link to it was on his website.
http://legault.club.fr/iss_atlantis_transit.html
Page also has a picture of his equipment.
Genius!
here is a depiction of the two docked
Remeber hubble was put into space by the shuttle so the whole thing fits inside the shuttle bay
What has god to do with this? Because it's beautifull it's god? If it's awfull, it's the devil or what?
...
*hides*
...Seriously?
Do you understand how unmagnified the sun is in those pictures? Your comment is akin to just looking at the sun with the naked eye and saying "its just round yellow, not scary".
check out the guy in the white shirt in the blue truck on the left..must be nice to get paid the big bucks to do that
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