Astronaut Ron Garan continues to be aboard the Worldwide Space Station since April 2011. Tonight, at night time Eastern (US) time, he'll land back on the planet with a couple of his crewmates.
During the ISS he required a large number of breath-taking snapshots of our planet. One of the last he shot was this unique scene:
[Click to embiggen.]
That stunning view shows our planet, obviously, with area of the space station itself hanging off right. But what steals the scene would be the aurora australis also known as the southern lights and 1 / 2 of the constellation Orion of left. It is simple to begin to see the three belt stars, but I must admit they looked funny in my experience. It required us a second to find this out
When the header info within the picture is accurate, it had been taken at 18:48 UTC on September 14, 2011. Based on Wolfram Alpha, the ISS was from the coast of Antarctica at that time, which fits with seeing the aurorae. In those days, Orion could be establishing free airline. Which makes sense the aurorae is always to the south, so west would seem to be left within this picture.
which describes why Orion looked funny. In the southern hemisphere, Orion seems upside in my experience! When i first thought individuals two stars at the end were Rigel and Saiph, Orion s knees, but actually they re Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, Orion s underarms! I recall the very first time I saw Orion from Australia, also it freaked me out. Visiting a familiar constellation upside-lower is fairly disturbing for an astronomer.
Obviously, to Ron, nothing could have been upside-lower. He is at space when he required this shot, so there's no up or lower. Unless of course you count towards Earth being lower and for the reason that situation, that s where he s headed. When I write this, the hatch towards the Soyuz TMA-21 capsule has already been closed, as well as in a couple of hrs it'll undock, getting the 3 astronauts to our planet.
The good thing is that, if the October 30th Soyuz unmanned flight launches as planned, three more astronauts will mind in the space station on November 12. This uses much angst yesteryear couple of days over that rocket, however the Russian space agency states the issue continues to be solved. I really hope so. NASA is facing lots of troubling occasions at this time, so a effective launch through the Russians would go a lengthy way toward taking a few of the pressure off.
Related posts:
- Soyuz rocket flaw found
- NASA ponders p-crewing the area station in November
- Moon over Afghanistan
- Such a falling star appears like from space
Image credit:NASA
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