NanoSail-D Caught on Video

By Nancy Atkinson - May 11, 2011 09:47 PM UTC | Space Exploration

When you have an automated video camera, it's amazing what you can pick up in the night sky. Dr. Robert Suggs used the Automated Lunar and Meteor Observatory at Marshall Space Flight Center to catch NanoSail-D on video as it slipped across the sky back on March 2nd, 2011. This video is from the small finder camera for the observatory and the solar sail appears just how it would be seen by the naked eye. The

NanoSail-D twitter feed

said that this video is actually upside down. "I am actually sailing out of the trees and higher into the night sky," the solar sail Tweeted. The same facility also captured images of NanoSail-d with 80mm and 14" telescopes.

NanoSail-D won't be visible for very much longer, just a couple of weeks or less until it will burn up in the atmosphere.

See our previous article on how to observe NanoSail-D before it de-orbits.

Source:

NanoSail-D website

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com