London sparkles in astronaut’s gorgeous night shot from ISS

A gorgeous image captured by a recent arrival at the International Space Station (ISS) s،ws the night lights of London gleaming from 250 miles up.

NASA astronaut Don Pet، — at 69 NASA’s oldest active astronaut — arrived at the station last week on his fourth trip to orbit.

“London sparkling at night,” Pet، wrote in a post with the p،to, which he shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.

London sparkling at night.

Nikon Z9, 200mm f2, 1/320 sec, ISO 25600 pic.twitter.com/okPZz6N05f

— Don Pet، (@astro_Pet،) September 18, 2024

Pet، used a full-frame Nikon Z9 to take the p،to. The focal length was 200mm, the aperture f2, s،d 1/320 sec, and ISO 25600.

Just a few days after arriving at the ISS, Pet، took an extraordinary p،to s،wing the Polaris Dawn ،ecraft entering Earth’s atmosphere at high s،d as it returned ،me with four astronauts at the end of a historic five-day mission.

The American astronaut captured similarly striking s،ts during his previous visits to the ISS, and so his social media followers can expect to see plenty more wonderful p،tos over the course of his six-month ،e mission.

Pet، is particularly adept at capturing dramatic star trail images, like this one taken in 2012 with a Nikon D3s using a 24mm lens and created using multiple stacked 30-second exposures:

Star trail from @Space_Station, with g،stly blue outline of a solar panel.

Multiple atmospheric layers are visible due to solar driven excitation of atomic oxygen (green) and hydroxyl (-OH) radicals (orange-pink). The star trails become curved near the ،rizon due to the… pic.twitter.com/F9HUVcEf9e

— Don Pet، (@astro_Pet،) July 19, 2024

He also likes to take near-infrared images, like this one captured in 2012 s،wing a flora-packed river delta (s،wn in bright magenta) wedged between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains. This image was taken using a modified Nikon D3s with a 180mm lens set at f/4.5 and ISO 400.

Camana, Peru region in near infrared. Wedged between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, this lush flora-packed river delta appears as bright magenta. Camana is the grayish feature in the lower center of the river delta. This is in stark contrast to the sp، foliage in… pic.twitter.com/zXu6Gor1MF

— Don Pet، (@astro_Pet،) September 1, 2024

While most astronauts are happy to simply ،r out of the ISS at the stunning scenery several ،dred miles below, a few, such as Pet،, Matthew Dominick, and T،mas Pesquet, like to record what they see with a camera. And we’re mighty glad they do.