Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
An 83 megapixel image of the sun has been captured by the Solar Obiter in a joint project by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. The images were taken in March when the when the spacecraft was crossing directly between the Earth and Sun and show unprecedented detail.
The image was taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and is the highest resolution image ever taken of the Sun’s full disc and outer atmosphere, the corona.
The ISS orbits the Earth every 90 minutes at the speed of 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour. On top of that, it’s very rare to see it during the day. So, capturing it in daylight is pretty tricky and requires some serious planning and preparation.
Chinese photographer Wang Letian captured the ISS at the right place and at the right time, and his photo even became NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for 11 April. No wonder, as it shows the ISS passing in front of the very active sun, making the viewer’s jaw drop in awe. We chatted with Letian a bit about his image and how he took it, and he kindly shared some backstory and the image itself with DIYP.
Aurora borealis or northern light is usually visible in the areas close to the center of the Arctic Circle. However, due to the recent solar storm, you may be able to see it as far south as New York! The geomagnetic storm has pushed the aurora closer to the south, so you don’t have to travel as far to the north to capture it in your photos.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 with a goal to explore our Sun. And now, three years later, the probe has reached its destination and “touched” the sun, getting closer to it than any space probe before. Parker entered the Sun’s corona, and as if it wasn’t impressive enough – it also sent back the first photos from out there.
If you’re a regular reader of DIYP or you’re an avid astrophotographer then the name Andrew McCarthy should be familiar to you. We’ve featured him numerous times, you’d think we’d be getting bored by now. But no, every single time his work just keeps getting better and better! And he’s really outdone himself with his latest set of images that show the sun in incredible detail with no less than a 150,000 image composite!
Solarcan is back with a new product, the solarcan.co.uk/PUCK. It’s a solar camera that comes in a very tiny tin package to let you shoot the sun’s path through the sky over many weeks or months. It’s much smaller than their original 16oz version, which you can see in action here when Matthew Vandeputte used one to create a 10 million second exposure (just under 4 months).
The new Solarcan Puck is also a pinhole camera and produces up to three total exposures. Each exposure is protected from light by a cover until you’re ready to shoot it. You also get a sticky mount and a couple of cable ties for attaching it to where you want to shoot from. An overview video has been posted by the company showing how it’s made up and what you get inside.
We’ve seen some stunning work from filmmaker Seán Doran before. This time, he made a stunning 4K timelapse video of the sun using available NASA images: nearly 80,000 of them. As a result, he created a video of the sun and its movement and activity over the course of one month, and yes – it’s as amazing as it sounds.
On 16 June current year, the ISS astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Shane Kimbrough went on a spacewalk. They were on a mission to install a new solar array for the ISS, and they were even caught on camera from Earth (kind of). But if you’d like to get a closer look at the recent spacewalk, ESA has announced two timelapse videos showing the two astronauts in action.
On 25 June, astronauts Shane Kimbrough from NASA and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet were on a spacewalk outside the ISS. Little did they know that they would photobomb an image of the ISS transiting the sun. Photographer Joel Kowsky took a series of transit images and it turned out that the two astronauts were there exactly at that time.
Whenever I see Andrew McCarthy’s name pop up on my Instagram feed, I know I’ll see and read something amazing. This time, this creative astrophotographer blew my mind with a timelapse of a massive active region of the Sun. It took Andrew solid six hours of observation and shooting this incredible sight, but judging from the end result, it was more than worth it.
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