Discovery's Last Go Round, As Seen From the Ground

SoyQueSoy writes to point out this "incredible footage of the passage of the International Space Station and Discovery, taken on February 28th 2011 at 17:58UT from the area of Weimar, Germany. A stereoscopic 3D version is also included for your viewing pleasure, as well as footage from February 26." Perhaps as interesting is the hardcore home telescope set-up used to get the images, a motorized, satellite-tracking Takahashi EM400.

Comments

Am I the only one?

[Sam_In_The_Hills]

Am I the only one who hears The Blue Danube while watching that?

wow

[mojo-raisin]

That Thierry guy is quite a master with a telescope & camera. He's also taken incredible shots of the shuttle traversing in front of the sun.

Just browse his website (assuming /. doesn't kill it).

Re:Tumbling?

[camperdave]

The thing you have to remember is that the way the station rotates is completely independent of its position in its orbit around the Earth. It is not tidal locked like the moon. The station most likely faces the sun constantly. It looks like it is tumbling because it is orbiting every 90 minutes. If it has one side facing the sun, then from our point of view it rotates on it's axis every 90 minutes.