APOD: Orbiting Astronaut Self Portrait (2012 Sep 18)

[APOD Robot]

Orbiting Astronaut Self Portrait

Explanation: Is it art? Earlier this month, space station astronaut Aki Hoshide (Japan) recorded this striking image while helping to augment the capabilities of the Earth-orbiting International Space Station (ISS). Visible in this outworldly assemblage is the Sun, the Earth, two portions of a robotic arm, an astronaut's spacesuit, the deep darkness of space, and the unusual camera taking the picture. This image joins other historic -- and possibly artistic -- self-portraits taken previously in space. The Expedition 32 mission ended yesterday when an attached capsule undocked with the ISS and returned some of the crew to Earth.

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[neufer]

Aki Brahe art?

[geckzilla]

Very interesting lens flare/internal reflections.

[Donnageddon]

I am thinking Escher

[Darrensw]

*With tongue firmly in cheek*

Hang on, this must be fake!

The astronaut has his back to the sun, yet his front is lit up, AND there are no stars in the sky!

Oh, hang on, he's not a NASA astronaut, so it's ok then.

[Ann]

Ann

[gwrede2]

Very interesting lens flare/internal reflections.

This flare dots around the sun seem unique, indeed. The camera that took this picture seems to be a regular DSLR clad in a cloth jacket that presumably evens out the fierece temperature differences between sunlit and shadowed objects.

But does anybody actually have an explanation for this paticular flare??

[digitality]

But does anybody actually have an explanation for this paticular flare??

It's due to the optics of the lens. Different lenses, different optics, different looking lens flares. Some lenses incorporate special coatings on the glass to reduce flaring.

[Hg2]

I don't think the camera taking the picture is the ISERV the link points to, unless ISERV really is just the Nikon D2Xs that took the image according to the embedded EXIF info.

[starstruck]

I wouldn't call it art, not by a long shot, but it certainly is a great photo!

For some reason I couldn't help but think about the original (and by far the best) "Alien" movie when I saw today's picture, must be something about those outstretched arms and the vulnerability of that visor!!

[rstevenson]

and the unusual camera taking the picture.

Uh, no. The ISERV camera, according to the linked article (which, hilariously, doesn't include a picture of the camera) is installed "in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) in the station's Destiny laboratory." It's "a new imaging instrument designed and built at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center". And it is "based on a modified commercial telescope". So I think we can conclude that it was the Nikon in the middle of the picture that took the picture, not the ISERV camera.

Rob

[neufer]

Aki Brahe art?

...and the unusual camera taking the picture.

Uh, no. The ISERV camera, according to the linked article (which, hilariously, doesn't include a picture of the camera) is installed "in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) in the station's Destiny laboratory." It's "a new imaging instrument designed and built at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center". And it is "based on a modified commercial telescope". So I think we can conclude that it was the Nikon in the middle of the picture that took the picture, not the ISERV camera.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

"What Is Art?" by Leo Tolstoy

<<Art begins when one person, with the object of joining another or others to himself in one and the same feeling, expresses that feeling by certain external indications. To take the simplest example: a boy, having experienced, let us say, fear on encountering a wolf, relates that encounter; and, in order to evoke in others the feeling he has experienced, describes himself, his condition before the encounter, the surroundings, the woods, his own lightheartedness, and then the wolf's appearance, its movements, the distance between himself and the wolf, etc. All this, if only the boy, when telling the story, again experiences the feelings he had lived through and infects the hearers and compels them to feel what the narrator had experienced is art. If even the boy had not seen a wolf but had frequently been afraid of one, and if, wishing to evoke in others the fear he had felt, he invented an encounter with a wolf and recounted it so as to make his hearers share the feelings he experienced when he feared the world, that also would be art. And just in the same way it is art if a man, having experienced either the fear of suffering or the attraction of enjoyment (whether in reality or in imagination) expresses these feelings on canvas or in marble so that others are infected by them. And it is also art if a man feels or imagines to himself feelings of delight, gladness, sorrow, despair, courage, or despondency and the transition from one to another of these feelings, and expresses these feelings by sounds so that the hearers are infected by them and experience them as they were experienced by the composer.>>

[emc]

Aki Brahe art?

Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart
He might blow up and kill this man

Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart

[emc]

Great picture today!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Did you notice the sun in the camera lens… a pale but not blue dot?

[drollere]

my first reaction was ... wow, those are damn fine optics. the internal reflections indicate highly sophisticated lens coatings.

second reaction was ... this is the classic armslength cellphone self portrait photo format used for about 70% of college freshman facebook avatars. a real mashup of style and substance, typical of the japanese creative response to western culture ... so one vote for "art".

the front of the spaceman is illuminated ... obviously ... by reflection from the earth and the nearby orbiter. ever hear of earthshine on the new moon?

[Fluffy Muffin]

Yesterday's portrait of the sun, today's self-portrait of an astronaut - science and art. Breathtaking, thought provoking, stimulating. I love APOD.

[Lordcat Darkstar]

Another great APOD! Without a doubt art in my book. Sadly the part of the photo that got the most of my attention was the big scratch across the front of his helmet I wonder what the story behind that is... Bumping the helmet on something or fighting off giant Japanese space aliens with tentacles! Either way it could make a good story.

[Anthony Barreiro]

Do you see the reflection of US astronaut Sunita Williams in Hoshide's visor?

[Wadsworth]

my first reaction was ... wow, those are damn fine optics. the internal reflections indicate highly sophisticated lens coatings.

second reaction was ... this is the classic armslength cellphone self portrait photo format used for about 70% of college freshman facebook avatars. a real mashup of style and substance, typical of the japanese creative response to western culture ... so one vote for "art".

I had the same reaction to the photo. After taking in its beauty, my American haritage caught the classic self portrait, but in an unarguably unique situation.
At the surface it is a beautiful photograph, but the depths of the intention definitly borders art.

[slyman]

now that's a selfie

[tbrick]

There is also another astronaut reflected in the visor.

[StarCuriousAero]

At first sight, I thought "meh, another astronaut picture, doing the self portrait for their facebook no doubt for when they get home" but zooming in on the picture made me awestruck. I love the reflection of the earth and the other astronaut, where in turn we're used to seeing a face, we get a big dose of space, technology, and Earth, something really inexplicably neat about that. I'm going to have to go with ART on this one, no doubt. Also, thanks to the resident Art for that dosage of Peter and the Wolf, that song always brings a smile to my face when I picture the red-headed bully in A Christmas Story. Good Stuff!