NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who has visited the International Space Station (ISS) three times, has got a reputation as a professional Earth and space photographer. He has recently begun his fourth mission to the ISS, becoming NASA’s oldest active astronaut at the age of 69.
Upon arriving at the station, Pettit quickly began shooting to share some spectacular new photos from 400 kilometers above the Earth. On his social media account X, he posted photos showing the glare of moonlight in the Amazon basin. Photographing night time cities, the astronaut said he noticed that the light of the full moon created brilliant patterns on the water, comparing the rivers to “silver snakes” and “golden claws.”
Moonshine from space. Somewhere over the Amazon basin, shooting photos of cities at night, I noticed the light from a near-full moon reflecting off of the meandering rainforest rivers. In the cool moon-ish light these rivers became flowing silver snakes. When the moonlight was… pic.twitter.com/SGIUAJLhpP
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) September 24, 2024
Pettit also shared the technical details of his photos. He used a Nikon Z9 with a 200mm lens, f/2 aperture and 1/320 second shooting speed at ISO 25600 to take the photos. He processed the images in Adobe Photoshop before publishing them.
In addition to photography, Pettit is involved in scientific research aboard the ISS. He often visits the Cupola module to capture spectacular views of Earth. He recently shared an image of night-time London and the Polaris Dawn Crew Dragon capsule as it rapidly re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on a historic five-day mission.
Pettit will remain in orbit until March 2025, which will give him the opportunity to create new photographic masterpieces from space.
We previously showed the best photos of the Crew-8 mission astronauts on the ISS.
According to Digital Trends
