UPDATE: Thanks to several people on Twitter who pointed out that what is seen in the footage here is the the upper stage of the Falcon 9, the Dragon capsule, and the ejected solar panel covers moving along together in orbit around the Earth. And as Phil Plait pointed out, since this was taken a few minutes after the capsule separated from the rocket upper stage, all the individual things you see here were still near each other in space.
We need to say it: astrophotographer Thierry Legault has done it again! Here’s an absolutely fantastic capture of the SpaceX Dragon capsule just 25 minutes after it launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, as it passed over Europe. Here, Legault captured footage of Dragon crossing the Big Dipper as seen from Paris at 19:50 UTC, April 18, 2014.
“It was an incredible vision: 4 bright dots moving together!” Legault told Universe Today via email.
Check out more of his amazing astrophotography and even some of his tips and tricks at Thierry’s website.
For a little over a month now, the Earth has been joined by a new…
Despite decades of study, black holes are still one of the most puzzling objects in…
74 million kilometres is a huge distance from which to observe something. But 74 million…
Astronomers have only been aware of fast radio bursts for about two decades. These are…
How do you weigh one of the largest objects in the entire universe? Very carefully,…
Exploring the Moon poses significant risks, with its extreme environment and hazardous terrain presenting numerous…