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Hah! I liked how he kept dropping the mike in the second video. The floating microphone was mesmerizing to me in the space videos. Thanks!

Just heard a fun interview with him last night on the CBC from Star City, Russia, and one of the questions asked was if he was dropping a lot of stuff. He said he was surprised after 5 months that he wasn't. He said after the first shuttle flight he did it all the time, much to his embarrassment, he'd try to "float" things over to people like he did in space, and would be surprised with a "thunk." He expected to have the same habitual behavior this time, but that part of his brain seemed to figure gravity out this time.

He said it's been a fascinating experience, that they've been learning a lot of interesting things about how the body and the mind works. Learning about how mechanisms actually work. I'm sure there's going to be a ton of papers out of this summer (he's pretty much a human guinea pig til his body returns fully to "normal" which he said should be in August.)

I can't wait to see how some of this info affects medical school teachings. When it starts trickling into the class rooms. I wouldn't be surprised if we start getting some of the new info in our Gross Anatomy Course this year, since the clinical correlations part of it is taught by my friend Scott and some of his NASA docs.
 
Having never payed much attention to it, I signed up for alerts and finally got one that coincided with a relatively cloudless sky. Man is that thing bright! I figured it was going to be like watching a star pass, but it looked more like a plane with how bright and visible it was. I've also got my wife hooked on looking for it.
 
Just heard a fun interview with him last night on the CBC from Star City, Russia, and one of the questions asked was if he was dropping a lot of stuff. He said he was surprised after 5 months that he wasn't. He said after the first shuttle flight he did it all the time, much to his embarrassment, he'd try to "float" things over to people like he did in space, and would be surprised with a "thunk." He expected to have the same habitual behavior this time, but that part of his brain seemed to figure gravity out this time.

That's funny. It's one thing to be a clever video, it's the next level when it's got truth behind it.

Hopefully he didn't try to float a drink or anything fragile.
 
I wave. Man I love the idea of man in space. And woman! Here's Tracy Dyson in the cupola. Note the velcro on her legs.

800px-Tracy_Caldwell_Dyson_in_Cupola_ISS.jpg




The ISS Cupola is a cool windowed area that makes for great pictures. Like this one:

the-sts-131-crew-in-the-isss-cupola-in-outerspace-credit-nasa-wow-seti-line-18a3-the-idea-girl-says-youtube.jpg
 
I have this disconnect, I know humans have gone to space for 50+ years, but it's just so surreal. I watch Apollo 13 every time I come across it and think how cool it would be to do that.
 
Quadrupled said:
I have this disconnect, I know humans have gone to space for 50+ years, but it's just so surreal. I watch Apollo 13 every time I come across it and think how cool it would be to do that.

I kind of think it's a waste of money, but it's fascinating, and does lead to much innovation. That's my disconnect-I love it and also wonder why we bother.
 
I kind of think it's a waste of money, but it's fascinating, and does lead to much innovation. That's my disconnect-I love it and also wonder why we bother.

One of the things that makes us human is to do these kinds of things. Next time you look at the moon, remind yourself that people have walked there. I think it's noble, a testament to our intellect and ambition.

In a time of awful war and atrocities around the world, the space programs are one thing that gives me hope in mankind.
 
For all in the SW suburbs of Chicago:

Time: Fri Jun 07 9:18 PM
Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 54 degrees
Appears: WSW, Disappears: NE

I totally didn't get that alert which is weird because I'm in the SW burbs. We did end up seeing it though as we were around the fire at a friends house and my wife looked up and saw it.
 
'Twas brighter than I thought it would be, considering the moon. I'll post a picture or two tomorrow, and I'm excited for one of the longer flyovers coming soon (5 min on Monday, just after dark).
 
I tried to snap a 10 second exposure as it passed "below" the Big Dipper. It would have made for a cool shot if the sky was darker and I got the dipper fully in the picture. Unfortunately it looks kind of like a short contrail with a few stars in the background.

What was really cool to me was that when I looked at the picture, the space station (a white line) had traveled ~50 miles! For perspective, a 757 at cruising speed would have traveled around one mile.

I hope it turns out well - looking forward to seeing it.
 
Damn it, I wanted to get the first pic, just like that, up here. Nice.

You need to go to manual focus and go to infinity. If you're using a DSLR, it might have a setting that reduces noise levels during long exposures. Maybe not a big deal (especially when out of focus), but might as well turn it on... this is what that's made for.

It's too bad, because the exposure is excellent. Great pic besides the focus. Putting the trees in there for perspective was the right idea. Thanks for posting.
 
Damn it, I wanted to get the first pic, just like that, up here. Nice.

You need to go to manual focus and go to infinity. If you're using a DSLR, it might have a setting that reduces noise levels during long exposures. Maybe not a big deal (especially when out of focus), but might as well turn it on... this is what that's made for.

It's too bad, because the exposure is excellent. Great pic besides the focus. Putting the trees in there for perspective was the right idea. Thanks for posting.

Yeah, not sure what happened as I've had some great luck with moon, star trails, and milky way shots recently.

I must have bumped the focus ring or something. ISO was only 400 and exposure was 20 seconds so there shouldn't have been much noise, but I did notice after the fact my noise reduction was switched to off. oops again. :eek:

Tonight is ~4 minutes, but pretty low (25* max height) so it might not be above the trees, but Monday or Wednesday are looking good enough that I might go up to the lookout tower to take the trees out of play, and take a dozen or so shots and stack them for a long trail.
 
Yeah, not sure what happened as I've had some great luck with moon, star trails, and milky way shots recently.

I must have bumped the focus ring or something. ISO was only 400 and exposure was 20 seconds so there shouldn't have been much noise, but I did notice after the fact my noise reduction was switched to off. oops again. :eek:

Tonight is ~4 minutes, but pretty low (25* max height) so it might not be above the trees, but Monday or Wednesday are looking good enough that I might go up to the lookout tower to take the trees out of play, and take a dozen or so shots and stack them for a long trail.

Do you have a remote shutter release? Intervalometer feature (time lapse)? What software do you use for stacking?
 
I've a remote shutter release but haven't used it.

The intervalometer on my Nikon D5100 is really good!

I've been using http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html for stacking.

I really want a super wide angle lens now. :eek:

Me too. I've got a 17mm for my Canon, but I've looked at the 12 and 14 primes. Very nice.

I've seen a demo of that software. It allows a dark reference to be subtracted from the image stack to remove the average noise over a long exposure. So, make sure to take at least one picture of the exact same duration with the lens cap ON. It doesn't really matter if you move the camera at that point.

Wish my camera had an intervalometer mode. WTF. It's a 7D.
 
Yeah, I try to remember to do a dark frame before and after shooting star trails. At least that way they're easy to find on the memory card.
 
Saw it for four minutes tonight. Thought it would be too low in the sky and behind the trees, but it wasn't. And I didn't have my camera set up. :eek:
 


That site also shows the tracks and estimated viewing times for the shuttle and the Hubble Space Telescope. I've got to keep an eye out for those.
 
I've got a low 4 minute flyover tonight and a couple hours later, a very high, but short (49*, 1 minute) one.

I might head out to the radio tower lookout peak and get some trails from the first one and hopefully get some "close-ups" of the high one with my 500mm.

If the clouds clear off. :eek:
 
Damn thing was bright tonight. Stacked images aren't working well since it moves so fast, and long exposures have been tough because of the moon. I,think tomorrow I'm gonna drop the ISO back down to 100, bump the f stop to 22 or so, and take a long single exposure.

I'll post some pics tomorrow of it buzzing by the big dipper. Very cool, even if my photog skills are struggling with this....
 
Another web site for ISS, Hubble and all things flying overhead - www.heavens-above.com. You can plug in your location then look for ISS or Hubble (HST) or all visible satellites. There is a bunch of stuff flying over that you can actually spot during early evening. The ISS is pretty amazing, though.
 
If you dont have the skyview phone app, you must try it. The free version tracks several objects including the ISS the paid version tracks almost everything. When you open the app it opens you camera and gives you the names of whatever object you are pointing towards. It does layovers of constellations and even works "through" the ground to track objects on the other side of the world. Its a great hit when we are camping and watching for the iss flyovers.
 
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