Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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Sunstruck
May 15, 2009 9:19 AM
Take a close look at the image of the sun provided by NASA
The agency says it was shot from Florida on Tuesday. The dark speck is not a sunspot, or a planet, or dirt on the lens. Click on the picture to enlarge and you'll see the shape of the shuttle Atlantis, the day after launch, just happening to make a transit of the sun's disc as it orbited at an altitude of 300 miles, closing in on the Hubble telescope for its Wednesday rendezvous.
Hat tip to Gina Sunseri for passing this on.
The camera was heavily stopped down. As the old saying goes, don't try this at home.
(Photo credit: NASA/Thierry Legault)
May 15, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (13)
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I thought they only went to the sun at night?
Badda boom.
Posted by: godef | May 15, 2009 9:49:46 AM
Awesome! Reminds you of how little you are.
Posted by: Nancy S. Hopp | May 15, 2009 2:41:31 PM
Glory to You O God Glory to You!!!
You've done everything in wisdom!!!
Posted by: John siokis | May 15, 2009 4:08:02 PM
Photo is a fake. The shuttle travels upside down in space. The cargo bay points to the Earth. Amazing that this is getting coverage and hasn't been revealed to be a scam yet.
Posted by: Glenn | May 15, 2009 4:11:36 PM
Maybe the picture is upside down ?
Posted by: Ted | May 15, 2009 4:54:34 PM
Glenn - "Photo is a fake."
Interesting. Could be. Maybe it was making an adjustment. Hard to believe a news producer would risk their career faking a photo for essentially no reason.
--
Ted - "Maybe the picture is upside down ?" Cargo bay 'down' would mean bay toward the earth and toward the camera. The shuttle would not be in profile position in other words.
Posted by: morethanpolite | May 15, 2009 7:20:20 PM
The photo is not fake you Negative Nelly! You can read more at the photographer's website
Posted by: google is your friend | May 16, 2009 4:45:16 AM
Glenn maybe the picture is upside down.......but you know the world is really flat
Posted by: Brown | May 16, 2009 10:27:44 AM
There is no "up" or "down" in space.
Posted by: BJs65 | May 16, 2009 8:29:09 PM
NASA site says: "In this tightly cropped image, the NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette during solar transit, Tuesday, May 12, 2009, from Florida. This image was made before Atlantis and the crew of STS-125 had grappled the Hubble Space Telescope.
The phtographer made this image using a solar-filtered Takahashi 5-inch refracting telescope and a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera.
Image Credit: NASA/Thierry Legault"
If it's fake, go whine at NASA.
Posted by: windrider | May 16, 2009 9:11:22 PM
Some people just seem to have nothing better to do than complain about something. I'm glad negativity doesn't rule my life! Go NASA!
Posted by: thomas | May 17, 2009 12:59:45 PM
Actually, the payload bay faces away from Earth when the shuttle is on-orbit. The Shuttle would be travelling from right to left in an image such as this one that is taken from earth.
Posted by: truthh | May 24, 2009 11:38:08 PM
Hey, Glenn, it's obvious you didn't check out the photographer's website , where a caption to one shot is "The following transit has been taken from the Kennedy Space Center on May 18th, during the last Hubble repair extra-vehicular walkout. We are looking at the top of Atlantis and Hubble, with the angle to Atlantis coming from a little towards the tail." Actually, I believe the orientation of a shuttle relative to the Earth depends on what the crew has it doing at any given moment, though I don't think it stays with the shuttle bay pointed "down" (i.e., towards the Earth) all the time. It's amazing he got such a great photo with just a 5" scope. Not just *any* 5", true, and ditto the rest of his gear.
I never had thought about seeing it transit Sol. . . . neat! (Showing my age with THAT slang word!)
Posted by: Mekhong Kurt | Jul 1, 2009 2:46:02 AM
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