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Home > News > Space Shuttle Atlantis Imaged in Silhouette Against the Sun
Image of the silhouetted Space Shuttle Atlantis with the Sun as a backdrop. (Image Credit: Thierry Legault, NASA)
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A stunning image of the silhouetted Space Shuttle Atlantis with the Sun as a backdrop was captured by Astrophotographer Thierry Legault of France. The image of the transit of Atlantis across the sun was taken from Vero Beach, Florida on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 with a solar-filtered Takahashi TOA-130 refractor and Canon EOD 5D Mark II camera.
Atlantis was zooming around the Earth at 17,500 mph (28,163 kph) at an altitude of nearly 350 miles (563 km).
All calculations were made by Mr Legault with the help of the specialized site www.calsky.com so that he knew when the transit would be visible from Florida.
'Once there it only took a few minutes to install the telescope on a big video tripod' stated Mr Legault. 'However, the greatest challenge was to chase a hole in the clouds that were numerous in the area because there are currently many thunderstorms over Florida. I had to take the photo just at the right instant.'
To capture the image, Mr Legault also used the lowest light sensitivity setting (ISO 100) and a very high shutter speed (1/8000 second).
For the photo shoot, he brought his 2200mm Takahashi TOA-130 refractor his 21.1 Megapixel full-frame Canon EOD 5D Mark II camera from France. He used a Baader solar prism, which made the image of the sun yellow.
For more information:
http://www.astromart.com/news/news.asp?news_id=939
AstroMart News Archive:
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