A Visit from Atlantis
Credit & Copyright:
Ron Dantowitz, Marek Kozubal,
Clay Center Observatory
This remarkable image of the
space
shuttle orbiter Atlantis docked with the International Space Station
(ISS) was taken
at a range of 190
nautical miles.
To record the fast moving pair, last week
astronomers at
Clay
Center Observatory,
near Boston, Massachusetts, planet Earth,
used a satellite tracking system and 25-inch diameter telescope
in combination with a digital video camera.
In the sharp picture,
Atlantis is below and left of center.
The aft view shows three main engines just below its
vertical tail glinting in the sunlight.
With the Sun shining from below, the body of the orbiter casts a
long shadow across the ISS itself and
impressive details of the ISS solar arrays
used for
power
generation are easily visible.
The large set of solar arrays installed at the
lower right was delivered during this
visit from Atlantis.