2025年7月18日
ISS Meets Saturn
Image Credit & Copyright: A.J. Smadi
Explanation: This month, bright planet Saturn rises in evening skies, its rings oriented nearly edge-on when viewed from planet Earth. And in the early morning hours on July 6, it posed very briefly with the International Space Station when viewed from a location in Federal Way, Washington, USA. This well-planned image, a stack of video frames, captures their momentary conjunction in the same telescopic field of view. With the ISS in low Earth orbit, space station and gas giant planet were separated by almost 1.4 billion kilometers. Their apparent sizes are comparable but the ISS was much brighter than Saturn and the ringed planet’s brightness has been increased for visibility in the stacked image. Precise timing and an exact location were needed to capture the ISS/Saturn conjunction.
Tomorrow’s picture: light-weekend
国际空间站偶遇土星
影像提供与版权: A.J. Smadi
说明: 在这个月的夜晚里，可见到土星高悬，不过从地球看出去，它的环系几乎是侧向。在7月6日的清晨，从美国华盛顿州Federal Way市的某一地点看出去，土星与国际空间站（ISS）在极短的期间内同框。而这幅精心规划、叠合自影片定格的影像，就记录了它们在望远镜视野里短暂近合的景象。只不过，国际空间站近在低地球轨道上，而土星这颗气态巨行星则远在14亿公里之外。在这幅影像里，虽然它们的视张角相近，不过ISS远比土星亮，所以土星经过了大幅度的增亮，让它的身影得以清楚显现。想要捕捉到国际空间站及土星发生近合，精确的定时及正确的拍摄位置至关重要。
明日的图片: light-weekend
