Here’s something cool for you all to look at, courtesy of The Planetary Society’s Weblog: it’s a photo taken by a guy named Ed Morana of the International Space Station transiting (i.e., crossing in front of) the Moon on February 13th.
According to the blog entry I nabbed this from, the image is composed of eight exposures from a video camera taken as the Station moved from right to left. Morana’s site features movies, if you’re into that whole motion thing…
The ISS appears to be moving remarkably fast in the videos, yet the time signature appears to be normal. Do you know how fast this thing travels? Or does it only appear to move quickly when viewed against distant objects?
Very cool.
Robert, I don’t know the station’s exact speed, but I think I’ve read it completes an orbit around the earth in about 90 minutes, so that’s pretty fast.
However, I think what we’re seeing in the video is a combination of the thing’s actual speed and an illusion caused by the tight magnification and the great distance between the two objects, the ISS and the Moon. Maybe. What the heck do I know? 🙂