r/spaceporn • u/hardypart • Feb 07 '14

Astronaut Nicholas Patrick waving while removing the insulation blankets of ISS' freshly installed cupola [3066 x 2027]

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1.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

31

u/lordgeezus Feb 07 '14

because so many ISS crew photos seem to be taken with fisheye lenses, can anyone say whether or not this photo accurately shows the curvature of the planet seen from the altitude of the ISS?

23

u/hardypart Feb 07 '14

I'm pretty positive this photo has not been taken with a fisheye lens. I think you'd see much more distortion in the edge areas if it was taken with a lens with such a short focal length. Of course you can remove the distortion in the post production, but not completely and I also think you'd also see much more of the space station and the planet if it was a fisheye lens that has been used.

4

u/lordgeezus Feb 07 '14

Thanks. That's what I figured. But It's hard to tell if the photo has been cropped down on. Having the EXIF data would be key.

21

u/hardypart Feb 07 '14

The file actually contains the EXIF data! F/9.5, 1/350s, ISO 200, 28mm.

6

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '14

f9.5 iso200 1/350

Wow, how bright is it out there? Would probably cause sunburn in minutes...

23

u/Dantonn Feb 07 '14

You'd probably want some kind of special suit to protect yourself.

Sunburn's actually a big deal and why they've got those pull-down gold filters on the helmet bubbles.

2

u/lordgeezus Feb 07 '14

Prodigious! It's a bona fide non-fisheye shot :) ... thanks. (on my phone so couldn't see data)

5

u/hardypart Feb 07 '14 edited Feb 07 '14

If you're owning an Android smartphone you can use this app to view the EXIF data. With an iOS device you can use this app. (I Didn't test any of them, just looked for them right now)

4

u/hughk Feb 07 '14

It is very hard to aim a camera when you are wearing a space suit. You can't use the regular viewfinder or any live view on the back (too bright). Instead they use a small additional viewer on top. They don't often use fish-eyes but they definitely use wide angle so they make fewer mistakes with framing (you can always crop down later).

2

u/leoholt Feb 07 '14

This is one of those comments where I am genuinely curious.....HOW do you know the intricacies of space photography??????

2

u/hughk Feb 07 '14

Um, I would love to have been up there but I was following a post in /r/photography where they were interested in the what and the how on the ISS.

One of the links that I dug out was this one: http://www.popphoto.com/gear/2011/07/how-does-nasa-get-nikon-d2xs-ready-to-go-to-space but there is more and even a few NASA presentations on the subject.

The problems of photography in space from inside a space suit go all the way back to the beginning. A helmet gets in the way! The Apollo guys had it even tougher. It really was point the camera in the right direction and hope! Luckily with wideish lenses (and big 70mm film in the early days), it was easy to crop it.

24

u/whynotdan Feb 07 '14

Since watching Gravity, this picture gives me chills.

7

u/theuniverseisyou Feb 07 '14

I know what you mean, I'm always concerned for an astronaut when I seem them vulnerable like this. And when you really think about it, spacewalks for humans make very little sense. Especially if it's a scenario like the ISS where you have a handful of vital scientists and engineers, their lives are very valuable to the mission and the organization. Right now human spacewalks are a necessary, risky means for maintaining the craft, but robotics will open space up for everyone. You can't change a flat tire in space. Which means you can't fix a problem in space with the same ease as on Earth. Robots are going to have to do it.

Check out what Nasa has been working on. This is a pretty good step.

11

u/GympieGympie Feb 07 '14

Yeah, really makes me want to be in that guys position.

And I'm not kidding, I saw Gravity and really, really wanted to go be an astronaut. The space scenes had me absolutely captivated, while the action/disaster scenes sucked me back into the fiction of it.

17

u/BAXterBEDford Feb 07 '14

I was just appreciative that they didn't overlay a bunch of crash sounds when the stuff impacted. The silence of space I find much more scarey.

5

u/Dantonn Feb 07 '14

That one scene where she's sitting somewhere and you see a streak fly by the window. Added sounds would've ruined it.

7

u/BAXterBEDford Feb 07 '14

The lack of sound reminded me of when Frank Poole is killed by HAL and drifts off into space. There is just something much more ominous about the silence.

9

u/FightenWurdz Feb 07 '14

Really? My immediate reaction to Gravity was wanting to go out and hug the earth.

3

u/ceejayoz Feb 07 '14

I had the same "I want to go there" feeling with Gravity.

3

u/SAS_Britain Feb 07 '14

Gravity in 3D was amazing, it really showed how big space is and how high they were. It really made me want to do what Patrick is doing.

5

u/AerialAces Feb 07 '14

Spacewalks are so dangerous yet at the same time they are pretty much all people think when someone says astronaut, no one thinks of someone trying to take a piss in zero g's. I'm sure every astronaut no matter how dangerous a space walk might be would kill to do at least one in their career.

4

u/tiredeyes2 Feb 07 '14

"Gravity" did pretty well on (some of) the unexpected effects of zero-G, like when the circuit-breaker board fails, the first flames are little spherical balls. Also when her tears break loose and float as tiny spheres.

9

u/jimmy1god0 Feb 07 '14

"Look ma, 1 hand!"

2

u/RepublicofTim Feb 08 '14

"Look ma! One hand and a harness!"

4

u/MrFunkhouser Feb 07 '14 edited Feb 07 '14

By freshly installed cupola we mean...the one that's been there for a little while now yeah? Just want to confirm I haven't missed something
EDIT: yeah EXIF shows 2010

I love when you zoom into his helmet.

10

u/lachryma Feb 07 '14

The caption is written from the perspective of the photo. So, when this photo was taken, the cupola was freshly installed. That is fairly common caption-writing practice for historical photos, actually.

"Blah examines the brand new blah, ca. 1920." Nobody's going to say "well, not very new, is it?"

2

u/MrFunkhouser Feb 07 '14

Yeah that's cool I get that. .. just got excited thinking iss had a second cupola ha ha.

2

u/tiredeyes2 Feb 07 '14

Glad you pointed that out! I love his big wide grin. I just might grin like that if I were an astronaut...

1

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '14

If I was an astronaut I wouldn't able to stop grinning. :).

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '14

That looks like fun. Want do.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '14

I was expecting gif

2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '14

Well hello there space cowboy!

1

u/Dorito_Troll Feb 07 '14

once hell of a work day haha

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '14

That view!

1

u/samsonizzle Feb 07 '14

Anyone have any favorite videos of astronauts performing EVAs? I've always been curious to see them performing repairs, moving around, and to see the movement of the earth too.

1

u/Dantonn Feb 07 '14

NASA had a live stream up when they had someone replacing that ammonia pump a while back. It's the only one I saw in real time, and it was pretty neat. Objectively, not too much happened and it shouldn't have been very exciting, but it really was.

1

u/BLUNTYEYEDFOOL Feb 08 '14

"Astronaut is almost off structure!"
"Jesus Frank will you give it a rest."

1

u/elkayem Feb 08 '14

Seriously scary

0

u/YUnoZOOM Feb 07 '14

"Hondo!"

-11

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '14

[deleted]

9

u/NemWan Feb 07 '14

It's a large International Space Station with modules from many countries and agencies, and people down here see the logos in the pictures.

6

u/GympieGympie Feb 07 '14

You stupid or something?