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RICHARD COFER

NGC 7380 Wizard Nebula

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Columbia Shuttle Passes by Venus on Last Flight image

Columbia Shuttle Passes by Venus on Last Flight


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Description

You wont get two of these. The shuttle Columbia re-entered the atmosphere for the last time the morning of February 1, 2003. I videotaped the re-entry from Reno, NV as Columbia passed just above Venus in the southeastern pre-dawn sky. This shot is a composite of hundreds of frames from the video aligned and stacked using MaxIm with final processing using Photoshop. The trail of the shuttle shows irregularities caused by debris coming off of the damaged wing. The video as well as the digicam were given to NASA as part of their accident investigation. In the first few weeks following the accident I assisted the debris recovery team in their efforts to locate parts of the shuttle over southern Nevada based on analyses of the videotape...Ron Bissinger, Pleasanton, CA

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  • Ronald Bissinger
  • Ronald Bissinger
  • January 19, 2022