A NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has posted a beautiful image showing an aurora over Earth.
Matthew Dominick has been aboard the ISS since March and is due to return home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on Sunday. In fact, it was from the docked Crew Dragon that he captured the stunning shot.
The American astronaut explained that the Crew Dragon is effectively his bedroom. Dominick has been sleeping there since departing the ISS crew quarters to make way for fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague, who arrived at the orbital outpost aboard another Crew Dragon, Freedom, at the end of last month.
“Peering out a Dragon Endeavor [sic] window that frames red and green aurora streaming by Dragon Freedom docked to the front of the International Space Station,” Dominick wrote in a message accompanying the image.
Peering out a Dragon Endeavor window that frames red and green aurora streaming by Dragon Freedom docked to the front of the International Space Station.
When Crew-9 arrived I moved out of my crew quarters on the ISS to make room for @AstroHague. I now sleep in Dragon Endeavor… pic.twitter.com/34XfeLXpcH
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) October 7, 2024
“We take most of our images from the Cupola,” Dominick said, “But sleeping here has been amazing. This is the view out the window this evening. I miss my family and friends but we would have missed today’s insane aurora if we had undocked today.”
The shot was actually selected from a series of images that were captured to make this time-lapse of the aurora:
Red and green aurora appear to dance in a timelapse as we flyby looking out Dragon Endeavour’s window with Dragon Freedom in view.
We shot a couple thousand images yesterday trying to get the settings, lighting, and framing just right across multiple orbital nights because the… pic.twitter.com/Y3IhlqTNrO
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) October 8, 2024
“Red and green aurora appear to dance in a time-lapse as we flyby looking out Dragon Endeavour’s window with Dragon Freedom in view,” Dominick wrote in the post, adding “a couple thousand images” were taken in order to get the settings, lighting, and framing just right across multiple orbital nights “because the aurora was amazing due to recent solar activity.”
During his seven months in orbit, Dominick has been sharing some impressive photos and videos from the space station around 250 miles above Earth. While he’ll be home soon, another keen space photographer, Don Pettit, recently arrived at the ISS, so if you’re a fan of such content then stick around as there’ll be plenty more of it coming your way over the next few months.