The space station is always in motion, but only rarely does space photography bring that movement to our screens on Earth.
International Space Station (ISS) astronaut Matthew Dominick has an ongoing series of photos on social media that show life in space. The NASA astronaut, in his limited free time between Expedition 71 duties, regularly sends time-lapse photos of the space lab.
“Zooming through the lab on the ISS,” Dominick recently posted on X, formerly Twitter, with an epic selfie of himself peering through the US Destiny module. He also takes photos looking out the windows of the ISS, “experimenting with long exposures,” he says. For photography enthusiasts, he even includes ISOs and exposure times.
Two recent photo stacks showed star trails around the ISS’s solar panels. “In the last of five 30-second exposures, the sun broke open the horizon, creating the brilliant blue on the service module’s solar panels,” Dominick wrote on X. “5 stacked images, 24mm, f4, ISO 800.”
Related: See Earth’s atmosphere glow golden in a stunning photo taken from the ISS
“A lot of test shots are being taken to find the best part of the track for lighting and angles to create images like the one above,” Dominick added in another post. “Some of the test shots are turning out interesting. In this one, the solar panel was moving during the capture.”
Another series of photos shows what the Earth looks like with different exposure times. “There are guidelines for doing astrophotography from Earth, but what happens when you shoot at orbital speeds? Thread shows images taken at ISO 6400, f1.4, and exposures ranging from 10s to 1/4s,” Dominick wrote on X.
A common question theme when posting nighttime images of the ISS is exposure length. There are guidelines for shooting astrophotography from Earth, but what happens when shooting at orbital speeds? Thread shows images at ISO 6400, f1.4, and exposures ranging from 10s to 1/4s pic.twitter.com/3YNwTeoOX7July 1, 2024
Dominick’s photos are attracting attention from both professional and amateur space photographers. He also answers some questions about how he takes the photos.
“Different windows have different optical qualities,” he said in an X-thread. “We have a window in the lab that is designed for taking pictures of the Earth. It looks straight down.” He added that he recently used a window on the docked Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which is in a good location despite “not being designed for astrophotography.”
The astronauts are supported not only by windows when taking photos, but also by “mechanical arms that are clamped to parts of the space station on one end and hold the camera on the other,” Dominick said on another poster.
Dominick has taken photography training with other astronauts, but he stressed to another that he is always eager to expand his skills. “If you have any ideas/thoughts, shoot them my way,” he urged. “I’m learning as I go.”