Posted on 04/03/2026 8:26:04 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman took this picture of Earth from the Orion spacecraft’s window after completing the translunar injection burn. There are two auroras (top right and bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun.
This and another photo of Earth are the first downlinked images from the Artemis II astronauts. See and hear what the astronauts do with our 24/7 feed.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at nasa.gov ...
That’s fascinating. Of course it’s flat but I did not expect it to be shaped like a disc. I expected a square. ;)
I was indeed a weird highlight: “Remember when we watched those white blobs on television that were astronauts???”
But I do remember how hot it was that morning...because I took a break and walked outside, and after just a few minutes, I walked back in, and not only was I drenched in sweat, but my glasses completely fogged up and I couldn’t see anything!
If you haven’t seen it, check out the link to the commercial just below it! That is a good laugh, too!
same with people who think the moon landings were fake
or that joe biden actually won
Atlantis!
Those large images show STARS! Yes, it’s night-time, Earth illuminated by moonlight and photographed with a very sensitive camera in a longer “normal snapshot” exposure time.
Remarkable stuff.
BTW, the astronauts have by now passed through the Van Allen Radiation Belts ... unscathed as one might expect.
My consumer-grade Nikon Z5 goes up to ISO 51000 ... Modern digital cameras are incredibly sensitive to low light.
A guy on an astromony club page posted the following meta data associated with the picture:
f/4, ISO 51,200, and 1/4 second, on a Nikon D5 with 22 mm focal length.
No Hasselblad anymore.
That meta data would work out to half (0.512 times) the light grasp of the Sunny f/16 rule, assuming the moon was 400,000 times less bright than the sun, and ignoring the two-loss way through the earth’s atmosphere. It also implies a field of view of 57 x 80 degrees in the camera.
0.512 times is one f/stop, going from f/4 to f/2.8.
Why can't the Pocket-Protector-People do that? They have millions of tons of crap floating arount up there, just waiting to chain-collide, and make the space around Earth unsafe beyond measure.
Why can't we have just a few rewards for all the tons of gold and money they have wasted with our government's authority?
Why do space photographers always take photos of the Earth’s butthole? Why can’t they take a very nice photo of North America for a change... always Afrida or some other dingy place.
Thousands and thousands of space junk and satellites and don’t even see one. Strange.
I think this is why there are so many amateur astronomers, even small towns I've lived in often had astronomy clubs. The scientific aspect is part of the draw, sure, as is the fact that astronomical objects such as nebulas (nebulae?) and spiral galaxies are beautiful to look at. But more than that, they, as you say, remind us of who we are and our place in the universe.
Quarter second seems to match the slight motion blur of the lights. It’s the first NASA APOD that I have downloaded and saved. Very impressive. To me, anyway.
Intelligent people can easily believe things which seem “stupid” to people who believe something else.
I knew a very intelligent man who claimed if all the ice in Greenland melted, it could not possibly raise the level of the oceans as much as was claimed, because Greenland was just a small island.
I looked up the numbers, did the math, and convinced him he was wrong and the math showed the oceans could rise that much. He had never actually done the rather simple math. He just assumed “those people” were lying to him because they had lied to him about many other things.
I also explained one of the real lies was that the melting of the Greenland Ice sheet would happen quickly. That helped.
Some people are extremely intelligent about many things, and extremely ignorant about many others.
We are all ignorant, just about different things.
Thousands and thousands of space junk and satellites and don’t even see one. Strange.
There are different degrees of ignorance. It takes a much greater level of ignorance to think that the Earth is flat than e.g. not knowing how semiconductors work. The "we're all equally smart/stupid, just in different ways" simply isn't true.
The “we’re all equally smart/stupid, just in different ways” simply isn’t true.
When I wrote, “We are all ignorant, just about different things.”, what I meant is even the most intelligent and well read of us have things they are ignorant of. For example, I can barely sew on a button, but a professional seamstress can make a beautiful gown before I learn to master a sewing machine.
Similarly, a person who cannot point out Africa on a globe can tell me the details of how his local barber shop is arranged.
I have found nearly everyone I talk to has interesting things to share, if I am good at listening.
There probably ARE detailed assembly manuals.
More proof that dogs are our best friends. lol.
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