View of Chicago and Indianapolis from the Space Station at Night

What do Chicago and Indianapolis look like at night from the International Space Station? These images are from The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, which provides images to the public for free. Searching through thousands of images, it can sometimes be difficult to orient yourself and try to figure out just what you're looking at. Luckily, Lake Michigan and Chicago are pretty easy to spot, and Indianapolis is nearby.

Visit the site and search through the archives for yourself. There are plenty of interesting and breathtaking photos hidden away. 

Chicago and Indianapolis from space at night - ISS030-E-106115

ISS030-E-106115

Chicago and Indianapolis from space at night - ISS030-E-230479

ISS030-E-230479

International Space Station with Slow Shutter Cam on iPhone

International Space Station with Slow Shutter Cam on iPhone with a clip on fisheye lens. I had to grab a last minute extension cord because the cold drained my phone battery in about 5 min. Our downstairs neighbors backed into their parking space and the tail lights made the roof turn red. So cool! It turned out better than I had hoped!

Several minute exposure in light trail mode (blend Lighten)

I found the predicted path of the ISS using Heavens Above, and set my iPhone up on a tripod using the Glif tripod mount. I used my Apple headphones as a shutter remote. I got the fisheye lens as a stocking stuffer for Christmas! Already putting it to good use!

I didn't notice the new Slow Shutter Cam upgrade until I opened the app for this photo. It now gives the option for full 8 megapixel size, and I had to go through and change a bunch of options back to how I had them before. Kinda threw me for a loop for a second there. 

iPhone clip on lens kit under $10.00 on Amazon

-3.4 Magnitude ISS Pass over Central Indiana

Last night, the International Space Station made another super bright pass over my apartment in Brownsburg, Indiana. It came out of the NW sky, flying directly toward my apartment balcony, and maxing out at an altitude of 83° above the horizon (almost directly overhead).

I got as much of the pass as I could from my balcony. I used my wide angle 18-55mm lens (18mm) to get as much of the sky as possible in frame.

After the ISS went over the roof, I took my dog outside to watch the rest of the pass overhead. I got a call from my brother who was outside watching as well. He said it was his first time spotting the ISS thanks to my text message a few minutes before the pass began. Neat!

Stack of several 10 second exposures at ISO 400, f/4.0, 18mm. I filled in the small gaps between frames in Photoshop to make one continuous trail. 

I left my camera out after the pass to get some star trails (and just in case, you never know what interesting thing you might catch in the night sky). I ended up with a bunch of planes and helicopters. It looks like way too much work to clean up to get long trails with just the ISS pass. That's what happens when you live near an airport and about a dozen hospitals.

The next morning I noticed a lot of contrails overhead - more than usual anyway. I snapped a pic and noticed later on that the skies look remarkably similar (except for the stars of course). I guess day or night, the sky is a busy place.

Stack of 509 frames, each at 10 sec, ISO 400, f/4.0, 18mm - next to single iPhone photo
I really like how the sunlight is lighting up the fountain, and some birds flew into view to add to the busy scene

Check the website Heavens Above for ISS predictions in your area. Remember, it's going around our planet every 90 min or so, but it's not always catching the light.

Photo of the Space Station on iPhone

I snagged another photo of the ISS tonight - this time a little closer to the ground to provide some nice foreground context. Last time I ended up with a nice bright trail but not a lot of context. The best app to photograph the space station is definitely Slow Shutter Cam (). You can use a headphone shutter release and just let your phone sit there until the ISS flies into the field of view.

ISS taken with iPhone and Slow Shutter Cam app, October 13, 2013 at 7:45pm

Slow Shutter Cam, Apple headphone (shutter release), travel tripod, and a Diet Sierra Mist

Superb ISS Pass Over Central Indiana Caught on iPhone

I found out about a prime International Space Station flyover about 30 minutes before it happened here in Indianapolis. The ISS was visible almost across the entire sky, and went 90° directly overhead, up past Venus and buzzing by Vega. I wanted to try to catch the pass on my iPhone using Slow Shutter Cam (), my Glif mount, and the Apple headphones as a shutter release. 

iPhone 5 mounted to a travel tripod using Glif tripod mount, Apple headphone shutter release, Slow Shutter Cam app

Venus with ISS, October 11, 2013; 7:43pm

I saw the ISS appear right on schedule, but I didn't see the small trail on my phone's screen. I thought for a moment that maybe the ISS was out of frame, so I stopped and repositioned my camera...

ISS crossing paths with a plane. This is a good example of how they look different - the ISS isn't blinking

I got this longer exposure of the ISS crossing paths with a plane. The ISS was brighter in the frame, but I wish I had stuck it out with the horizon shot a little longer. This angle lacks the context and nice colors of the sky near a dark horizon. Oh well, still fun to watch and photograph a -3.3 mag pass of the ISS with a camera phone. 

I also recommend this Precise Time app () that shows local and UTC time simultaneously. Fun for satellite spotting, or just being anal about having the correct time displayed in days and seconds. 

Brilliant ISS pass over Indiana

My brother called me on Thursday night to let me know the International Space Station would be flying overhead later that night. He said he heard it on the news. I verified by going to Heavens-Above and saw that indeed the ISS would be flying over Indiana at 11:00pm at -3.4 magnitude reaching a max elevation of about 60° or so.

I'm glad they reported it on the news, but you can tell they only report the really spectacular passes otherwise they'd be listing a handful of visible passes every couple weeks.

What luck! The station would be flying out of the NW directly toward my balcony, and the sky looked like it would cooperate. This was a great chance to try out ISS spotting from this new location, along with an app I've been dying to test under these circumstances - It's called Precise Time () and it "synchronizes time from high resolution Atomic Clocks from around the globe." Unfortunately it doesn't have the ability to SET your iPhone's clock, but you can open the app to see the seconds ticking away in precise time.

I used the app to watch for the appearance of the ISS, and was successful in comparing the predicted appearance within +/- about 1 second. This could be very handy for spotting Iridum Flares!

Series of 20 second exposures stacked (you can see little breaks in the ISS path)

Series of 15 second exposures stacked (point and shoot camera)

ISS returns to evening sky in Ohio

Evening ISS predictions for NW Ohio

In Ohio, the International Space Station hasn't been visible in the evening since June 28, 2012. From my location, the ISS went into hiding from June 28 until July 19 - after which it was only visible after 2:00am (Source: Heavens Above)

August 5 at 10:46pm the ISS will soar into the evening sky over Ohio, with its first visible pass before midnight in over a month! Between Sunday, August 5 - Friday, August 10 the Midwest will be treated to several spectacular passes, with some approaching the visual magnitude of Venus.

Check your local listings (haha) for the exact time, altitude, and azimuth of the pass. Here are the numbers for Bowling Green, Ohio.

Sunday, Aug. 5: -1.1 mag, 16° alt, 22:46 ET 

Monday, Aug. 6: -2.7 mag, 34° alt, 21:53 ET
Monday, Aug. 6: -1.3 mag, 27° alt, 23:30 ET 

Tuesday, Aug. 7: -2.6 mag, 53° alt, 22:36 ET 

Wednesday, Aug. 8: -3.4 mag, 82° alt, 21:43 ET 

Thursday, Aug. 9: -1.1 mag, 28° alt, 22:27 ET 

Friday, Aug. 10: -2.2 mag, 45° alt, 21:33 ET

Great Lakes at night as seen from space

After discovering the multitude of completely free and awesome images at The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, I decided to post an interesting shot of the Great Lakes at night as seen from the International Space Station (I added the city labels in Photoshop).

From 250 miles up, you can clearly see Bowling Green, Ohio! Hello astronauts! Down here!

Zoom to 4256 x 2832 pixels

View from the ISS at Night: "Makes me want to throw away my camera"

My friend @TravelinMike tweeted me a drop dead gorgeous timelapse video from the International Space Station. Take a look:

View from the ISS at Night from Knate Myers on Vimeo.

Did you see this space timelapse @EricTeske? Makes me want to throw away my camera.mashable.com/2012/07/21/stu… via @mashable
— Michael Donohoe (@TravelinMike) July 23, 2012

I completely agree! The footage is breathtaking, and it makes me wish I had a better camera, more experience, and - wait a minute... Knate Myers isn't an astronaut on the ISS. As Knate states in the video credits:

"Every frame in this video is a photograph taken from the International Space Station. All credit goes to the crews on board the ISS. I removed noise and edited some shots in photoshop. Compiled and arranged in Sony Vegas."

So what's the deal? Can I take epic footage from the International Space Station, add some music, and post it on my own Vimeo channel? According to NASA: Absolutely!

The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth isn't just a clever name, the site provides hours of free public access videos from space.

Heck, I can even snag some images to use on my site for free (like the ones below) as long as I say Images courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center and add a link to http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/

ISS030-E-271500

ISS030-E-271750

Boom! Free media. Nothing against Knate Myers, but I'm a lot less impressed. I might even make my own ISS video and post it online for everyone to gawk at! No fancy equipment needed!

International Space Station (ISS) using Slow Shutter Cam app on iPhone

Original photo on iPhone

Since my last attempt at photographing the ISS on an iPhone turned out rather boring, I tried to get a little more foreground into my shot this time. I actually took this photo from inside my bedroom looking out over the parking lot of my apartment complex. The flyover was early in the night (9:54pm) so the sky was even lighter than it appears in the photo.

Cropped and filtered for Instagram

ISS light trail with Slow Shutter Cam iPhone app

No slapdash iPhone astrophotography blog would be complete without a barley discernable image of the International Space Station streaking across the sky, as captured by the Slow Shutter Cam app.

I used Light Trail mode with exposure length on B for "bulb" and light sensitivity at 1. 

A car pulled into the parking lot right as the ISS was diving into Ursa Major, so I cut the exposure short. I'm glad I did, because otherwise I would have just had a white line on a blue background. At least now it sort of looks like something streaking through the sky. 

Hey, it's not pretty, but it's an authentic photo of the ISS from Earth using nothing but an iPhone!

Next time I'll try to get some foreground in the shot. There is an early sighting of the ISS over northwest Ohio on Saturday, June 9 around 9:41pm. The sky might still be light enough to see some color and foreground objects. 

International Space Station (ISS) and Dragon C2+ (?) flyover viewed from Ohio

One of these things is not like the others! ISS over Ohio: 5-25-12, 4:07am

In my previous post, I mentioned being frustrated with the deteriorating weather as I sat around my apartment waiting for the time to pass. I watched the entire two hour National Geographic Bee, had some coffee, and played with my phone. Although it was still cloudy (about 60% coverage) when I went out to the Intramural Fields at 3:30am, there was a hole in the clouds directly overhead. It was my lucky break, and I set up my tripod facing northeast at about 60 degrees elevation.

Using two stars of the Summer Triangle as guides, I knew the SpaceX Dragon C2+ capsule would "thread the needle" between Deneb and Vega (according to the StarWalk app).

Anticipated path for Dragon C2+ flyover. "Threading the needle" between Vega and Deneb.

Unfortunately, at ISO 400 and 15 sec exposure, Dragon was not visible in any of my frames. However, when I saw the ISS rise above the clouds at about 30 degrees elevation, I forgot all about Dragon. This was my first ISS observation, and it blew me away. It instantly became the brightest object in the sky, and shot almost directly overhead. It was like an unblinking aircraft flying impossibly high and impossibly fast.

What really blew my mind was that my Satellite Tracker app had perfectly predicted the flyover. I can imagine being out at night with friends and pretending to produce a shooting star on demand with careful timing. "If there is a god, send us a sign!!" - queue ISS flyover.

Here are a few more shots of the ISS streaking across the sky and into the distance...

Update: Based on the C2+ mission updates, it looks like I didn't "miss" Dragon on my camera because Dragon wasn't there! I was expecting the capsule to be about 2 minutes in front of the ISS, and I figured Dragon would do another lap around the planet and catch up to the ISS again. 

Well, I must have misunderstood the rendezvous maneuvers, because it looks like at around 4am EST there is no way Dragon could have been flying 2 minutes in front of the ISS because it was easily within 10 kilometers of the station. It might be a false memory, but I might recall seeing a small amber light trailing immediately behind the ISS. Who knows - either way there is no way to discern between the ISS and Dragon in my 15 sec exposures because they're all blurred together. 

Although I don't have proof in my photos, I'll probably still tell people I saw Dragon flying with the ISS ;P

Stubbornly anticipating a cloudy ISS / Dragon C2+ flyover

On Tuesday night we had clear skies, and I had planned to photograph the SpaceX Dragon capsule chasing down the International Space Station at a time when both crafts would have been visible in the same shot - it looked pretty impressive in my mind. The pass was going to occur at around 4:20am, so I set my alarm for 3:45am. The next thing I remember is waking up at 5:15am, checking the time, and realizing I must have turned my alarm off in my sleep (although Chris distinctly remembers being woken up by my alarm).

Fast forward to tonight and we have poor weather conditions that look like they're only going to get worse. I've been watching a row of thunderstorms roll in for the past 5 hours, hoping that they would either speed up or slow down because they look to be on track for squatting over Bowling Green at precisely the time of the flyover.

A depressing weather map from AccuWeather.com

There are several reasons I feel compelled to press on in spite of the clouds. I'm frustrated that I missed my opportunity to see Dragon two nights ago, I am encouraged by a photo of the ISS through the fog, and I'm excited because I've never seen the ISS flyover before and I hear it is pretty cool (and bright enough to be seen through a thin layer of clouds perhaps).

I'm using an app called Satellite Tracker () after visiting the NASA Human Space Flight tracker page and being confused by the directions. The NASA page gives the degrees (azimuth) at different periods, and the azimuth at rise and set, but for some reason I find the top-down image on the Satellite Tracker app to be much easier to visualize.

I'm heading out at 3:30am to point my camera northeast for 45 minutes to see what happens. Maybe I'll get lucky and catch Dragon through a hole in the clouds, or maybe the ISS will be bright enough to shine through. Maybe I won't see anything at all, but at least I won't be left wondering when I wake up in the morning even more frustrated.