A Spot in the Sun - Incredible Photo

[NedNickerson]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments

It looks like a speck of dust on the surface of the sun.

But this spectacular picture shows the space shuttle Atlantis alongside the International Space Station (ISS) silhouetted as they orbit the earth.

The image was taken in Normandy by French astrophotographer Thierry Legault. He used a digital camera attached to a £5,000 specially kitted-out telescope.

The shuttle, which returned last week from a 12-day mission, and the space station can be seen in orbit 250 miles above the earth while the sun is 93 million miles away.

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Thierry Legault's home page (more incredible photos!):

http://www.astrosurf.com/legault/index_fr.html

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[NedNickerson]

Here's a composite picture of the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.

 

[Kuja]

Waaay cool. I like how Florida looks on the last image.

...I want to be an astronaut now.

 

[UrbanBOYS]

AMAZING .... thanks for sharing those ... very cool !!!!! (JUB is good for so much more than just jacking off !!!!)

 

[ichbinhornig]

thats cool. really cool.

 

[hunky]

Are they sure it wasn't something on the lense of the telescope or camera? lol

I need that telescope to try and find my dick!

 

[JSB_01]

I need that telescope to try and find my dick!

But seriously, those are cool pics!

 

[NedNickerson]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09302006/news/worldnews/real_solar_flair_worldnews_todd_venezia.htm

REAL SOLAR FLAIR
SPECTACULAR NEW VIEW OF SHUTTLE
By TODD VENEZIA
September 30, 2006 -- Call it "2006: A Space Oddity."

A powerful telescope has picked up a stunning image of the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station silhouetted against the sun as they orbited together last week.

The stellar shots were taken from Normandy, France, by Thierry Legault, using a special $9,500 telescope, according to The Daily Mail of London.

Though the shuttle and the station appear to be crawling like ants across the surface of the hulking sun, they are actually only about 250 miles above Earth - while the sun is 93 million miles away.

The station is about 240 feet across, while the sun is 864,000 miles across.

The view is similar to looking at something that is 2 1/2 yards away - which is dwarfed by something 5,800 miles away.

Atlantis returned home on Sept. 22 after a 12-day trip of a little less than 5 million miles - which would have gone just a little more than a 20th of the way to the sun.

In a scene reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" (with no waltz by Strauss, though), the shuttle docked with the space station on Sept. 11 for some much-needed repair work.

The astronauts delivered and installed an "integrated truss segment" and performed three successful spacewalks, NASA said.

On his Web site, Legault said that he took the picture 50 minutes after the two space vehicles undocked on Sept. 17.

The image was taken on a Canon 5D camera with an exposure of 1/8,000th of a second using a telescope with a diameter of 150 mm.

As high tech as all that sounds, Legault's only "assistants" were a few cows standing in a pen by a Normandy hedgerow where he took the image.

 

[buzzj]

Thanks for sharing that awesome photograph!!

 

[metta]

That is amazing. I have never seen the sun look like that. Are you sure that it is not one of the pool table balls

Fascinating.