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There’s a drone flying around the International Space Station – and it’s adorable

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Looking like something pulled right out of Wall-E, there’s a spherical object floating around the International Space Station. This object is Int-Ball, a camera drone that explores the ISS autonomously or via remote control from earth. Developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) the first videos of it in action have now been released.

Int-Ball’s objective is to help alleviate some of the work done by the crew. JAXA estimates that the onboard crew spend about 10% of their working hours with a camera in hand. Being able to have Int-Ball explore the ISS instead of the crew frees up valuable time for other duties.

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There is now a permanent photography exhibition in space

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Normally when we hear about photography on the space station, it’s photographs made there. It’s scenes looking back at earth through the windows of Cupola, the ISS observatory. Incredible views of the earth, stars, auroras, or crazy timelapse. This time, though, it’s not photos coming to the earth from the ISS. They’re going to the ISS from earth.

Playing host to its first photography exhibition, the ISS now houses five images from Indian photographer Dr. Hersh Chadha. Printed on vibrachrome by Duggal Visual Solutions, these five photographs are intended to reconnect the astronauts with the Earth.

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Look deep into the Milky Way from the ISS with the help of NASA

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No matter how much amazing imagery NASA throw at us, they always seem to wow us with new and amazing photographs on a regular basis.

Shot on a wide lens mounted on the International Space Station, this image lets us look deep into the milky way while making a pass over the Republic of Kirbati, a tiny island nation in the Pacific Ocean with a population of only around 100,000 people.

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Photo capturing the Sun, ISS and Mercury in a single frame

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No, this is not a TIE fighter gong over the sun, it is the International Space Station. And while getting a shot of the ISS over the sun is competently doable, getting that shot with Mercury in the frame is an epic effort.

Engineer and photographer Thierry Legault took this composite of the ISS, Sun and Mercury at a carefully selected location and date in Philadelphia, USA. You see during the entire 21st century there are only 14 times that Mercury goes over the sun. Add to that the precision needed to capture the exact 0.6 seconds of ISS transit and you can start understating how hard it can be.

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This is what star trails look like when shot from the International Space Station

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Star trails have become a very popular photography subject, especially with the high ISO performance offered by some cameras over the last few years, but few will have the opportunity of creating them from such unimpeded views as the International Space Station.

Don Pettit is one of those few, stacking short exposures of the stars to produce some amazing star trail images, which also include the earth.

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This is the camera gear that NASA use on the International Space Station

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From the moon landings to present day, one constant question that much of the world’s population has when it comes to space missions is their choice of camera equipment.

During the space race with the then U.S.S.R. of the 1960s, and using primarily Hasselblad cameras with 70mm film, NASA found that they needed more portable cameras for active situations.  This was when NASA’s long history with Nikon began, and they have been supplying NASA with camera equipment ever since.

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The International Space Station as Captured with the Nikon P900’s Monster Zoom

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Shortly after its announcement I read a review of the Nikon P900 super-zoom bridge camera, where the author excitedly said it can be used to shoot objects as far as ten miles away.

Judging by this photo of the International Space Station, captured by Naftali Maimon, I’m happy to say the P900’s 83x 2000mm-equivalent zoom is also capable of snapping photos of objects 250 miles away.

That’s right, this photo was captured with a $597 bridge camera!

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See a Beautiful New Photo of Earth With Every New Browser Tab You Open

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If you haven’t heard of Urthecast, you need to fix that.

Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Urthecast is a company working hand-in-hand with NASA to provide the first publicly accessible HD camera that’s attached to the International Space Station.

While their main objective is a constant stream of HD footage broadcasted live for the world to see, Urthecast has also created a new Chrome App that will automatically display one of the thousands of incredible images Urthecast has in its growing archive when you open a new tab in your browser.[Read More…]

Here’s The First Known Photograph Of The ISS Transiting The Moon During A Lunar Eclipse

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If you’re like me, your social media and news feeds were chock full of some great (and some not so great) shots of last night’s supermoon/total solar eclipse. Sadly for me, we had some pretty terrible weather and clouds that made my eclipse gazing plans non-existent–and I really had my heart set on trying to catch the International Space Station make a pass across the exciting lunar event.

Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to have a look. Renowned astrophotographer, Theirry Legault, wasn’t going to miss the rare occurrence for anything. Legault was able to not just see the ISS transit, he also grabbed some video and stills of the eclipse and it’s drive-by visitor.

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