AMAZING images of Atlantis and Hubble crossing the plane of the sun

[onehandle]

It's difficult to imagine a more epic scene, but this photo has modest origins: amateur Astronomer Thierry Legault shot it with nothing but his own telescope, a solar prism and a Canon 5D Mk II.

http://gizmodo.com/5255723/amateur-astronomer-captures-stunning-images-of-atlantis-hubble-in-the-face-of-the-sun

[QueenOfCalifornia]

1. WOW!

Thanks for this!

[HowHasItComeToThis]

10. 23 SKEEDOO

[roguevalley]

21. is that totally cute or what?

[mainegreen]

2. The sun: very large, very yellow.

Also, not too many spots lately.

:D

[lamp_shade]

3. Nice balloon.

[Sequoia]

4. Where the sun's flamey edges? It just a kids's yellow ball if you ask me.

Ha...not really....beautiful.

[bleever]

5. Maybe it was at night.

:)

[Richard D]

7. Coffee on monitor alert!

[VWolf]

8. DUZY!!!

:rofl:
:rofl:
:rofl:

[Sequoia]

13. You should do stand up comedy pal !

[autorank]

24. k*r!!!

:toast::rofl: :toast:

What has four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?

When does the Sun come if you're on the Sun?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

31. Bwahahaha

Too damn good!

[Subdivisions]

11. Solar minimum...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_minimum

Here is a live image of the Sun:

[notadmblnd]

12. and look, I can see Atlantis and the Hubble crossing the plane in that pic too!

Oh.. Wait... it's just dirt on my monitor.

[progressoid]

6. Whoa.

Check out the whole shot on his website: http://www.astrosurf.com/legault/atlantis_hst_transit.html

[mikelgb]

9. sweet

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

14. It's only a model. n/t

[EOTE]

15. Does anyone know how close Atlantis and Hubble actually got to the sun?

It's got to be an incredible distance, but does anyone have an idea?

[supernova]

17. We're 93 Million miles away

from the sun.

Atlantis and Hubble are only about 300 miles up. :-)

[EOTE]

18. Ahhh, so 92,999,700 miles then.

Does Hubble ever leave that orbit? Or is that as far as it will ever go from the earth's surface?

[onehandle]

19. The Hubble (and most things up there) has a decaying orbit.

Part of the current mission is to boost it a bit and replace gyroscopes that affect its decay rate. If they fail, it will burn up in reentry sometime between 2010 and 2032.

This mission will extend its life somewhat, but eventually it will probably be allowed to burn up.

[EOTE]

20. How cool, I'm guessing that's a no then.

Is there nothing that can make something like the Hubble stay in orbit in perpetuity? Like, is there a particular speed that would have the Hubble maintaining the exact same distance from the earth's surface? Or is that just a bit impossible with today's technology?

[ArbustoBuster]

22. The answer to that question is in a few parts.

To keep the Hubble in orbit in perpetuity is technically possible if we were to give it its own rockets and enough fuel to keep them working long-term. The outgassing from the rockets might mess with the telescope's optics, though. The other option is to do what we do now and boost it "manually" on occasion with the Shuttle.

Most things we want to stay up for long periods are put into high orbit, where their orbits take a very long time to decay. However, the Shuttle can't get to high orbit, so anything put up there is going to be unmaintained by astronauts.

[backscatter712]

30. IIRC, they're adding a docking latch to Hubble.

Along with the other repairs, the docking latch is being installed so in a few years after Hubble goes offline, a robot can be sent up, dock with Hubble with this latch, and then perform a controlled deorbit of Hubble so when it reenters, it falls into the ocean, rather than on someone's house.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. For all intents and purposes one AU, the same as Earth

they are at Near Earth Orbit

AU= Astronomical unit, the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun

[Echo In Light]

16. "Sto-ner caravan from deep space arrives."

~ Sleep, From Beyond

:thumbsup:

[Forkboy]

26. Rides on the suncraft toward the glowing eye.

:smoke:

[Echo In Light]

28. Ha...yeah that's the one

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGyRv3gCvyI&feature=channel_page

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1K8vFI0bm4&feature=channel_page

[ColbertWatcher]

23. The story behind how this gyuy got the photo is just as amazing. n/t

[Forkboy]

27. An amazing, and humbling photo.

[kentuck]

32. I saved it as my screensaver.

magnificent!

[Wednesdays]

29. K&R

:kick:

[DU GrovelBot]

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