Space Shuttle Landing

This is an amazing still picture of the touchdown of Atlantis at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Space Shuttle Missions get very little coverage on the BBC or any other media for that matter unless of course it blows up!

NASA Television is a superb site for watching live and recorded pictures of the missions. I watched Atlantis STS-117 take off live and tonight watched the landing live. The mission is a bit special because I was able to 'see' in the sky the ISS and watch the launch live on it's journey to the ISS. It became very 'real' so I was able to follow the mission. I began to feel a little bit like the Apollo 11 days where you realise that technology is wonderful and children need to be aware of what is happening out there in space.

I watched Mission Control bring down this Space Craft from a speed of 17,000mph in half an hour to glide gracefully to a standstill in a desert in California and it's not on a PSP2!

Here are some statistics: 22/6/07

Official Landing Times Main gear touchdown:20:49:38 p.m. BST

Nose gear touchdown:20:49:49 p.m.

EDT Wheels stop: 20:50:48 p.m.

EDT Total miles: 5.8 million

New look ISS

ISS trail from my back garden at the time of the Space Shuttle launch.

Yesterday the Space Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the international space station in preparation for return to Earth. The photos of the ISS taken from the Space Shuttle are stunning! The ISS is now bigger than ever and will no doubt reflect more light to the Earth as it passes over my back garden. Weather is not good at the moment...and getting worse!

I'm looking forward to seeing the ISS pass overhead again with it's new look. Let's hope I can take a good image of it.

The other night I downloaded a satellite tracking programme that will find and track the ISS with a telescope. I'm hoping that my Celestron SLT is supported by this programme, so I want to test it next time we have clear skies and the ISS in view.

Later today the Space Shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth.

Close up ISS

Close up image of the ISS taken during the second pass on Friday Night. I have tried to bring out some detail, and if you look carefully you can tell that it has a vague 'space station' shape. I have just seen some incredible images if the ISS docked with the Space Shuttle taken last night by others with telescopes.

(How can you track the ISS with a telescope and image it at the same time? It moves pretty fast!!)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1109/539702533_f326cfee72.jpg

http://www.shannonsideastronomy.com/graphics/near/ISSAtlantis.gif

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/images/issatlantis.gif

The ISS Trail

The Space Shuttle Atlantis 45 minutes after taking the picture below.
Click the image above it's brill!


The first attempt at imaging the International Space Station about 90 minutes earlier hand-held was not successful, so I tried again on the second pass. This time I mounted my Canon 350D onto a tripod and waited for the ISS to appear. The image above was taken with a 20 second exposure set to wide field. This was about 45 minutes before the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis with a mission to dock with the ISS and build - on to the station.

I watched the launch live from NASA TV and this was amazing! The image above is from the launch.

To think that I have just taken images of the ISS over my own back garden then watched the Space Shuttle live heading for the ISS gives me a wonderful feeling!

International Space Station Pass

For the first time I have just watched the ISS from my garden! An amazing sight...it is 10.25 and still light, but the ISS is very bright and is easily seen. I took some photos with my 350D, but I couldn't hold the camera still enough, all I can see are random trails from the ISS.
What is even more amazing is that in 2 hours time the Space Shuttle Atlantis is about to launch from Cape Canaveral to dock with the ISS and add on new parts. I really wish I could take a decent image of the station...even better with the Space Shuttle attached!
The next pass is at 23.56pm travelling West to East. I will try again to capture some images...fingers crossed!