NASA astronaut Matthew Dominique launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in March as commander of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission.
During his time at the orbital outpost, Dominique shared some amazing pictures from inside and outside the ISS.
Avid photographers will be delighted that the astronaut also shares the camera settings he used for each of the shots. The latest one is a real beauty and shows the moon above the earth just before sunrise.
1/ A sliver of the moon appears to rise from the nocturnal clouds and peer toward the horizon awaiting an imminent sunrise.
1/250s, f5.6, ISO 6400, 170mm (50 to 500mm lens), cropped pic.twitter.com/6vq9NfdXx0
— Matthew Dominic (@dominickmatthew) July 6, 2024
This creative image from inside an ISS module sees Dominic experimenting with „light painting” using a flash.
Happy 4th of July!
There were no fireworks on the ISS, we used camera flashes instead. Experimented with „light painting” today.
15 sec, f22, 24mm, ISO 500. Lights off. Manually activated our own flashes. Ambient light only from computers and test LEDs.
1/ Floating pic.twitter.com/fe8arQh3aJ
— Matthew Dominic (@dominickmatthew) July 4, 2024
In this collection, Dominic shows how different shutter speeds can affect how the Earth appears in an image.
A common question theme when posting nighttime images from the ISS is exposure length. There are guidelines for astrophotography from Earth, but what happens when shooting at orbital speeds? Thread shows images with 6400 ISO, f1.4 and exposures from 10s to 1/4s pic.twitter.com/3YNwTeoOX7
— Matthew Dominic (@dominickmatthew) July 1, 2024
Here’s an amazing night view from the ISS showing the Nile flowing into the Mediterranean Sea.
Flying from the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea.
1/5s, f1.4, ISO 12800
Dark frame and other processing should be subtracted later. It was wonderful to see on such a clear night. pic.twitter.com/fMucJdfw74
— Matthew Dominic (@dominickmatthew) June 30, 2024
It shows an astronaut peering out a window aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at the ISS. Dominic is also experimenting with timelessness, which you can see below.
A brief interlude from individual images taken while finding the perfect light for the image above. A faint blue glow from a moon on the horizon in front of the ISS illuminates the dragon. pic.twitter.com/QeTJwYSAb3
— Matthew Dominic (@dominickmatthew) June 29, 2024
Here Dominique places the camera on a monopod and uses a slow 1/5 shutter speed to create a sense of movement in an image taken from inside one of the station’s many blocks.
Zooming in through the lab on the ISS. pic.twitter.com/6jzajAyy1E
— Matthew Dominic (@dominickmatthew) June 28, 2024
This image shows a portion of the ISS with a dramatic background of star trails.
Experiment with long exposures trying to capture star trails with the beautiful structures of the ISS. The sun broke the horizon in the last of five 30-second exposures, creating a brilliant blue in the service module solar arrays. 5 stacked images, 24mm, f4, ISO 800. pic.twitter.com/eyX92X2CoY
— Matthew Dominic (@dominickmatthew) June 25, 2024
Finally, check out this amazing time lapse showing the Starliner spaceship docked with an aurora in the distance.
A timelapse video of Aurora streaming behind the Starliner was taken from the Dragon window with Butch and Suni at the window of the Starliner. Their flickering lights illuminate the room.
0.5 second interval, f 1.4, 6400 ISO, 1/4 second exposure, 24mm lens. pic.twitter.com/gZuxYZu0Af
— Matthew Dominic (@dominickmatthew) June 16, 2024
Another resident of the ISS gained fame for taking jaw-dropping photos. French astronaut Thomas Pesquet usually turned his lens 250 miles down toward Earth and captured beautiful images that perfectly encapsulated the beauty of our planet.