Stunning Look at ISS and Docked Disovery -- From the Ground!

By Nancy Atkinson - April 22, 2010 at 8:52 AM UTC | Missions
ISS_STS-131-with-shuttle.jpg

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This has to be one of the clearest close-up shots of the International Space Station ever taken from the ground! Plus it has the added bonus of having space shuttle Discovery docked to the station. Ted Judah, who lives in northern California captured this image -- one of 150 he took during the an ISS pass over his observatory during the recent STS-131 mission. Here's Ted's description:

The ISS came into the morning light over the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of northern California and was tracking north-east as it passed directly over my sea-level observatory. I was lucky there was no fog. I have a Canon 30D SLR and Celestron 11" Schmidt-Cassagrain on an equatorial mount. I track manually and use my precisely-aligned finderscope to aim - when the ISS is in the crosshairs I shoot like crazy. Of the 150 shots I took, less than half have the ISS in frame.

Ted told me he was "stoked" to get such a clear image. Who wouldn't be?? Nice work, Ted!

Ted is not new to trying to capture the ISS. He won one of "Phil's Picks" (Bad Astronomer Phil Plait) in Celestron's "Capture the Universe" contest

with another image of the ISS.

Also, Ted has contributed a couple of podcasts to 365 Days of Astronomy, and one of my all-time favorite podcasts is

Ted's description of how he and his family built an observatory out on his father-in-law's farm.

Here's another shot Ted took during the same pass: [caption id="attachment_63464" align="aligncenter" width="363" caption="The ISS and shuttle Discovery during the STS-131 mission. Credit: Ted Judah"]

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Thanks Ted, for sharing your wonderful images!

Nancy Atkinson

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