At some point, you look look at a picture and think, it is seriously insane that we can do this. Behold: the Orbiter Discovery approaching the International Space Station, as seen from the ground:
I think I remember that scene from Star Wars!
This remarkable picture was taken by Rob Bullen on Saturday February 26 from the UK, using an 8.5″ telescope. I’ll note that’s relatively small as telescopes go! But the ISS is now over 100 meters long, and if it’s directly overhead (that is, the closest it can be to an observer on the ground) it appears large enough to easily look elongated in binoculars — in fact, it would be big enough to look elongated to someone with good eyesight and no aid at all*! Still, images like this are difficult to obtain even with a carefully guided telescope equipped with a video camera.
Oh — did I mention that Rob hand-guided his telescope for this shot?
Yeah. Wow.
This is a remarkable piece of photography involving excellent timing, good weather (it had been cloudy at Rob’s location almost up until that moment), and luck. But ...
