First-Ever Astronaut Interview From the ISS Focuses Closely on Astrophotography

The picturesque view from the cupola within the Global House Station (ISS) is iconic — it’s been in pictures and movies numerous instances. Alternatively, it had by no means been the positioning for a are living interview, no less than till this week. Medical American‘s Rachel Feltman, host of the e-newsletter’s Science Temporarily podcast, chatted are living with NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick as he floated within the ISS’ cupola. Dominick has had a whirlwind summer season in house, shooting stunning and artistic pictures, together with one of the crucial fantastic self-portraits ever captured in house, or even sharing loose astrophotography courses on X, previously referred to as Twitter, from the ISS. Pictures is the main center of attention of Feltman and Dominick’s chat, noticed under, with Dominick dishing on his photographic historical past and what it’s love to take “pictures of house, from house.” All over the interview, Dominick is situated within the seven-windowed dome on the backside of the ISS. Because of this Dominick seems upside-down as the distance station orbits Earth. As Dominick and Feltman chat, audience can watch the lighting fixtures stipulations alternate right through sundown. “Within the view presently, you’re seeing 3 or 4 of the ones [seven] home windows. And as we undergo this dialog, we get to peer a dynamic match, which is sundown,” Dominick says. “I may take days and days to explain it, which is likely one of the causes that drives me to take action a lot pictures, simply attempt to seize what we see.”
Dominick additionally main points a brand new addition to the cupola: some neutral-density filters to hide the home windows. “For pictures nerds, those are four-stop [filters],” he explains. He says those filters assist disclose pictures that display each the interior of the cupola and the view of Earth and house past. Those filters helped make the are living video interview conceivable. “Talking of pictures nerds, you’re an engineer, a pilot, and naturally an astronaut, however you’re additionally a prolific photographer,” Feltman says, asking Dominick how he were given so into pictures. The moon environment over the Pacific. Went to the cupola to shoot Tropical Typhoon Hone close to Hawaii however proper once we handed by way of the hurricane the moon began to set. 400mm, ISO 500, 1/20000s shutter velocity, f2.8, cropped, denoised. percent.twitter.com/YtboVnRNpF — Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) August 24, 2024 “When I used to be younger, my dad used to be a photographer and a journalist, and manufacturer/director for native stuff in Colorado. He in fact began doing that within the Air Pressure. He used to be a photographer; ran a movement image unit for america Air Pressure,” recollects Dominick. “Simply seeing how he took images and the way he composed issues and cropped issues and arrange pictures, I didn’t do numerous it rising up, however I used to be round it. Becoming a member of NASA, we’re skilled by way of our picture/television division about take photos.”
Dominick explains that right through pivotal moments of his adventure into house, he discovered himself in need of to seize such a lot of what he noticed. “I believe immense duty to proportion what we see. So few persons are fortunate sufficient to come back up into house, I believe an immense legal responsibility to take photos and proportion the entirety we see with the sector.” Timelapse of the moon environment into streams of crimson and inexperienced aurora adopted by way of a break of day lighting fixtures up Soyuz with a gentle blue. The aurora were superb the previous few days. Nice timing for checking out a brand new lens that not too long ago arrived on Cygnus. 15mm, T1.8, 1/3s publicity,… percent.twitter.com/otFv5pZ6vd — Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) August 12, 2024 “With the gear now we have, the cameras now we have up right here, doing my perfect to proportion what we see with the sector.” Whilst there are distinctive demanding situations to photographing from house, together with extremely various, dynamic mild, there also are particular advantages. As an example, aboard the ISS, Dominick and different astronauts get to peer 16 or 17 “golden hours” day by day because of the velocity of the ISS because it orbits Earth. “We’re creating a lap across the Erath each and every 90 mins, so if I don’t get the lighting fixtures proper or the setup proper on a go, I will wait 90 mins and get a possibility to do it once more,” he says.
One of the crucial vital difficulties of capturing aboard the ISS is coping with reflections on home windows. Photographers like Dominick have gear to assist, like huge shrouds to position round their cameras or difficult lighting fixtures, nevertheless it’s a relentless fight. They will have to additionally deal with motion, because of this the use of rapid shutter speeds. “Other folks who do astrophotography on Earth may be able to disclose 10, 15 seconds with out seeing famous person trails relying on what lenses they’re the use of,” says Dominick. On the ISS’ speeds, he sees streaks with a half-second publicity, even if the use of a wide-angle lens. That’s a vital distinction. A self-admitted digicam tools nerd, Dominick has a variety of unbelievable toys to play with in house, together with full-frame Nikon mirrorless cameras, just like the Nikon Z9. Some non-Nikon lenses are up there, together with a Tamron 50-500mm telephoto zoom and one in all Dominick’s favorites, a 15mm T1.8 cinema lens. This 15mm lens arrived as a shipment cargo to the ISS in early August. We gained a shipment cargo this week with a variety of cool stuff to incorporate some new digicam lenses . . . spent a just right a part of the weekend with a 15mm, T1.8 lens. Made a complete bunch of timelapses. Nonetheless having a look even though 1000s of frames, a variety of that have aurora however the milky manner in… percent.twitter.com/IyCZgE7yF9 — Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) August 11, 2024 I confirmed this to a few buddies the day before today to peer what they concept. They each concept it used to be a meteor exploding within the environment – a moderately vibrant one referred to as a bolide. Timelapse is bogged down to 1 body in keeping with moment so that you can see it streaking after which exploding. In the event you… percent.twitter.com/tn2KmWgnoE — Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) September 3, 2024
Feltman and Dominick talk about a lot more about pictures in the entire, just about 20-minute interview, together with information about Dominick’s NASA pictures coaching, the kind of pictures he enjoys taking aboard the ISS, his favourite pictures, and what existence is like at the ISS. Symbol credit: Featured symbol is a nonetheless body from Medical American’s video.

Author: OpenAI