NASA's oldest active Astronaut shares mind blowing 'Star Trails' shot from space

These images were shot by Astronaut Pettit from International Space Station on a Nikon D3s
NASAs oldest active Astronaut shares mind blowing Star Trails shot from space
NASA Astronaut Donald Pettit who also happens to be an Astrophotographer has shared some stunning photographs on Reddit. The photographs are of 'Star Trails' captured in 2012 during his previous mission to the International Space Station. Star Trails are long-exposure images and are difficult to capture.
Astronaut Pettit calls this image 'Lightning Bugs', and used his Nikon D3s DSLR to capture it. "This is a 15-minute exposure made by stacking 1-minute single exposures," he says. The 'Lightning Bug' was captured at ISO 800 with a 24mm lens stopped at F/5.6.
Star Trails 39Lightning Bug39 shot from International Space Station by Astronaut and Astrophotographer - Donald Pettit
Star Trails 'Lightning Bug' shot from International Space Station by Astronaut and Astrophotographer - Donald Pettit
Explaining the image Astronaut Pettit says "In the photo, stars make arcing trails in deep space, while a huge thunderstorm pounds Earth below as seen from the time history of lightning flashes. The atmosphere between them glows green with what scientists call airglow, which has a different excitation mechanism than auroras."
At the age of 66, Astronaut Pettit is NASA's oldest active Astronaut. A chemical engineer, Astronaut Pettit is a veteran of two long-duration stays onboard the ISS, One Space Shuttle mission, and a six-week expedition to find meteorites in Antarctica. For more pictures and updates from Astronaut Pettit you can follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
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