[Richard Kimball]

Where did you get the camera info? On the post I saw, it said a Nikon 8, which is not the ID of any Nikon camera I'm aware of, digital or film (course, I'm strictly a Canon shooter, so I don't follow Nikon very closely). It should have been daylight going over California, so the long exposure time doesn't make much sense to me. I've shot a CP990, and the CCD, lens, and software are very similar. It's fine as a consumer digital camera, but I have difficulty believing that anything of any value would come from this type of camera, taking that long an exposure at that distance. Again, though, your post is the first reference I've seen to that particular model.

[TigersEye]

It should have been daylight going over California, so the long exposure time doesn't make much sense to me.

It was still dark in AZ when the Shuttle passed over. Some kids took a video that was of black sky as it approached from the west and light as it disappeared on the eastern horizon. So it was still dark in CA when it went over.

[blu]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/836319/posts?page=31#31

Jernigan, who is no longer working for NASA, quizzed the photographer on the aperture of the camera, the direction he faced and the estimated exposure time -- about four to six seconds on the automatic Nikon 880 camera. It was mounted on a tripod, and the shutter was triggered manually.