We are used to seeing photographs of Space on our social media feeds. Popularised this decade by Chris Hadfield and emulated by many more it’s hard to conceive a time existed before astronomer photography. So who was the first photographer in Space?
It was this man, Gherman Titov of Russia:
Titov was aboard Vostok 2 when it took off to journey beyond our atmosphere and make 17 orbits of Earth on the 6th August 1961. The mission, Continue reading
The explosion in popularity of digital SLR cameras with low noise capability has brought forth the Aurora Borealis revolution. It appears that some camera accesory manufacturer are also tapping in to that market
In the early morning hours, LEE filters surprised photographers with the announcement of a brand new product to their range, the KP9 Aurora glass filter.
We had the opportunity to speak to Mike Bolan, Continue reading
It’s probably safe to assume that most of us understand that Space observatories are built at high altitudes where viewing conditions are better because the atmosphere is less dense. Sharp-witted photographer Rob Ratkowski created this clever visual aid to show how altitude makes huge differences to imaging the skies.
Science explainers like Ratkowski often have to find unique ways to demonstrate certain scientific reasoning. Using photography and just his index finger Continue reading
The unfaltering juggernaut of daily Space photographs APOD shared a remarkable image of Mars last night.
Yes, Mars.
Don’t get too excited though, despite their appearance those blackened tree like structures cresting on the rolling hills are just an illusion of perspective. The photograph Continue reading
Today marks 15 years of continuous human habitation onboard the International Space Station. In that time the forty plus crews have amassed a library of over 2.7 million photographs. The Earth bound social media team spent some time scanning through the archive to choose 15 of their favourite pictures taken whilst hurtling around our atmosphere at 27,600km/h.
The selection is a truly dazzling array of sights and everything you could wish to expect from Space imagery. All taken within the last four years, there’s an abundance from Continue reading
Three years after Stars Episode IV: A New Hope was released one of the most remarkable cosmic coincidences with regards to popular culture on Earth and imagery of Space would occur. The first fully resolved images of Saturn’s moon Mimas would be released by NASA and its similarity to the Empire’s Death Star would take everyone by surprise.
Until last night there was no better example of cosmic coincidence in our universe. Then NASA released imagery of the so called ‘Halloween comet’ due to zip by Earth on the evening of 31st October 2015.
Take. a. look. Continue reading
Astronomers at the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB) have incredibly busy these last five years photographing the sky night after night in order to search for objects with variable brightness and in doing so they have compiled this amazing 46 billion pixel photo of the Milky Way making it the largest astronomical image of all time:
The Milky Way is so large the astronomers had to subdivide it into 268 sections, photographing each Continue reading
When NASA went to the Moon, digital cameras didn’t exist and therefore exposures of the Lunar landscape had to be caught on film. Recently a team tasked with the preservation of the Apollo mission films uploaded the entire collection of images to Flickr. Among the 2400+ images are a surprisingly large amount of failed frames consisting of light leaks, over exposures, sticky labels and motion blur. Despite being redundancies, they carry with them an abstract beauty and a feeling of realness. NASA didn’t send photographers to the Moon, they sent astronauts and the vernacular feel to the plethora of pictures they brought back works as a surprising twist to a journey that is drifting further into our past.
Phogotraphy spent some time picking through the archive and choosing the thirty best ‘Imperfect Apollo’ frames we could find to share with you. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did.
Brace yourselves for a nerd boner of epic proportions. Scientists have managed to resolve enough pixels to directly image an exoplanet orbiting a star 60 light years away. It’s a six second video (shorter than a Vine even) but its contents give rise to a promise of what is in store for the future.
How far away is Beta Pictoris b exactly? Sixty light years distant is roughly Continue reading
Have you ever decided to stay up all night to see the aurora borealis and then fallen asleep, only to kick yourself the next morning because you missed it? Just imagine setting all your camera gear up and then dozing off before you’ve even seen the results.
Phogotraphy 