Space shots from a space station
January 10, 2014 11:36 AM   Subscribe

 
Awesome! And it's almost laughable how much the 5th photo down looks like something straight out of an Images From Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey coffee table book.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:47 AM on January 10, 2014


SOON
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 11:51 AM on January 10, 2014 [3 favorites]


Or out of another movie.
posted by stbalbach at 11:51 AM on January 10, 2014


Don Petit is my Overachieving Astronaut Photographer hero.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 11:54 AM on January 10, 2014


The Cupola module gets its name from the Italian word “cupola,” which means “dome.”

Huh. I'd've thought it got its name from the English word "cupola," which means "cupola."
posted by Sys Rq at 11:56 AM on January 10, 2014 [7 favorites]


That was great, thanks.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:08 PM on January 10, 2014


Don't tap on the glass. They hate that.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:13 PM on January 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Huh. I'd've thought it got its name from the English word "cupola," which means "cupola."

The Cupola was mostly built in Italy. I don't know the exact history of the module, but I'm pretty sure when the module was started (and later cancelled) by the United States, its original name was from the dull English phrase "multi-window workshop."
posted by ddbeck at 12:14 PM on January 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Weird. I thought it came from the American term "cup holder", which means "Big Gulp receptacle".
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:16 PM on January 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Funny to see the different postures that different people take, given there's no up or down to orient yourself to. Some of them treat it like a ceiling, some like a window, some like a floor. It must take a while on the ISS to get used to aligning your head & feet in whatever direction makes the most sense at the time.
posted by echo target at 12:28 PM on January 10, 2014


Thanks for the link...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 12:32 PM on January 10, 2014


This is one of my favorite shots, in part as it seems like it should be in a movie or television show...not something that's actually happened miles above my head at 17,000 some miles per hour.
posted by Atreides at 12:42 PM on January 10, 2014 [5 favorites]


Wow! I love that one too, Atreides. It exactly what I'd be doing if I were up there.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 12:51 PM on January 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


Vertiginous.
posted by Caskeum at 1:13 PM on January 10, 2014


Atreides, that was my desktop wall paper for awhile a few months ago. I love the exterior shots - good to know what it looks like from the outside!

And if anyone wants to know when you can see the station fly overhead, here's a handy link from NASA.
posted by lharmon at 2:32 PM on January 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


If I were up in the ISS, I'd be torn between being leery of being in the cupola because of my residual acrophobia, being leery of being in the cupola because of the irrational yet ineradicable famtasy of looking dreamily out when suddenly an alien head appears on the other side, and definitely going in there to spin around in 0G going "pew pew."
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:37 PM on January 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


How the resident astronauts find the willpower to not just spend every waking hour in the cupola, I don't know. I fantasise about being able to visit the ISS and just stare out at Earth - it must be like the 150 proof rum version of sitting and looking at the ocean.
posted by lucidium at 3:54 PM on January 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


This is a searchable database of astronaut photos from the ISS - you can download quite big images and can search by keyword, habitat or map. Why yes, I've spent a crazy amount of time
posted by leslies at 4:53 PM on January 10, 2014 [2 favorites]


How the resident astronauts find the willpower to not just spend every waking hour in the cupola, I don't know.

I don't know, man. Yeah, it's pretty neat in the abstract, but I have a feeling I wouldn't be able to poke my head into that cupola without shrieking uncontrollably.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:29 PM on January 10, 2014 [1 favorite]


That first image is exactly like something from science fiction.
posted by Jacob Knitig at 8:06 PM on January 10, 2014


Man, that one guy is hogging the cupola.
posted by Sphinx at 7:44 AM on January 11, 2014


INCREDIBLE
posted by BrightSideUS at 3:52 PM on January 11, 2014


This must be a common refrain upstairs.....'By the way if anyone needs me.....I'll be in the cupola'
posted by numberstation at 5:11 PM on January 11, 2014




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