Sun photos overwhelm shuttle Atlantis and Hubble telescope

William Atkins
Saturday, 16 May 2009 19:40

Science - Space

A French photogragher captures stunning images of the space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope as they travel in front of the Sun just before the STS-125 astronauts grabbed the telescope in preparetion to service and repair the orbiting observatory.


According to SpaceWeather.com, for the May 15, 2009 Web site, “The shuttle's silhouette outlined by solar fire is a must-see” and “The space shuttle's silhouette was beautifully outlined by solar fire as Atlantis passed over central Florida.”

See this first photo at: http://spaceweather.com/.

Astrophotographer Thierry Legault took the photograph on May 12-13, 2009, as the Hubble Space Telescope and the space shuttle Atlantis traveled side-by-side in their orbit about the Earth.

Legault took the images while visiting the Kennedy Space Center, on the east-central coast of Florida. He used a solar-filtered Takahashi 5-inch refracting telescope and a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera while about 60 miles south of KSC.

Legault commented on his image of Atlantis and Hubble together: "I took this picture of Atlantis and the space telescope transiting the sun together on May 13th. It was just before the shuttle reached out with its robotic arm to grapple Hubble. The two spaceships were at an altitude of 600 km and they zipped across the sun in only 0.8 seconds." [SpaceWeather.com]

This second image is found at the SpaceWeather.com site “Space shuttle and Hubble.”

Note: Expand the picture on the Web to see a tiny black-colored shuttle and Hubble (when compared to the giant yellowish Sun) in the lower-left hand portion of the picture.

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