Icon Photography School

One of my favorite Milky Way photos from ISS, with the multicolored lights of Southeast Asia streaking across the exposure from orbital velocity, while distant stars remain fixed by my star tracker. The long exposure intensifies the atmospheric airglow into a thick red band!

Moonlight reflected off the Amazon river. At the proper angles in our orbit, we aboard @Space_Station can see brief silvery flashes atop water surfaces, illuminating even the darkest places on Earth.

Many have asked how this photo was made. This is my explanation. The ISS rotates about its pitch axis as it orbits Earth at 17,000mph to keep its nadir view constant. Because of this long exposure photography turns stars into arced lines. Sidereal clock drives on Earth match the planet's rotation to see stars clearly. I knew one designed for space could do this too. So a camera mount was custom built at @RITtigers to rotate once every 90 minutes using a 60 to 90 toothed gear system, cancelling out the orbital motion of ISS and allowing the capture of distant stars as fixed points! In essence, it is a a rotational coil spring powered analog star tracker. It was machined out of aluminum and is entirely mechanical to bypass NASA's strict electrical requirements for cargo. We had to get creative! After Expedition 72 it was safely returned to Earth and is to be displayed at RIT. Which I am pleased to say because a similar barn door tracker I made from spare parts on Expedition 6 for nighttime city photography was destroyed in an atmospheric trash disposal! Photography is an important part of sharing the journey to new frontiers for all people of Earth!

I finally have all 1.2 million raw image files from my latest mission to ISS! Here is a sample of one of my favorite Milky Way photos, taken from the Cupola with Nikon Z9, Arri Zeiss 15mm lens, T1.8 with custom sidereal drive that cancelled out star motion relative to our orbit.