June 18, 2012
Beating Stray Light
Stray light—those nasty reflections off our Space Station windows—can ruin the aesthetics of nighttime imagery and viewing. Reflected light from our numerous control panels and computer screens is hardly noticeable until you closely inspect your pictures, typically after returning to Earth when there is no possibility for a retake. The reflections are aggravated by the design of our windows: four layers of glass resulting in eight parallel mirrored surfaces. For photographers, they can create a haunting tunnel of colored blotches that project off to infinity, like being in a house of mirrors.
To eliminate these reflections requires attention to many small details. Any source of low-level light has to be masked. Even when this is done, light coming from the adjacent Node 3 and Node 1 modules is enough to ruin a nighttime sequence of images. Then there’s the toilet, close to our windowed Cupola, which, when occupied, spills sufficient rays to spoil an image. I have found that it is possible to train your crew to use it in the dark.
As a final measure, I spread a cloth baffle across the base of the Cupola with an opening sufficient only for my head. Like a flattened projection of a turtleneck sweater, this final barrier effectively excludes errant rays. Equipped this way, as soon as your eyes become adjusted for night, both your view and your images will be spectacular.
How about a (black?) cloth cover for each window, attached at the edges of the window, with a hole in the middle large enough for only a camera lens?
For convenience, and extra-perfect sealing, you could duck-tape the hole in the middle of the cloth around a cheap camera lens-hood or something…
Such a cloth would seem to block all stray light except for that coming from outside the spacecraft.
Comment by Miles Bader — June 21, 2012 @ 6:11 pm
Just like comment #1 said. I thought the same thing but he was first. In the TV studio where I work our teleprompters have felt baffles to eliminate light reflection from off the back of the glass. A string with a slip knot is used around the lens to hold the felt in place and also an easy way to remove the camera off the teleprompter mount. Keep shooting the nice pictures from space.
Comment by Tim Carr — June 25, 2012 @ 9:20 pm
[...] many opposite projects, it’s substantially good to have spares. But as Pettit himself shows in this photo, some setups need some-more than one camera or plcae — for capturing panoramas, for [...]
Pingback by Astronaut shows off stellar camera collection on ISS | News Fringe — June 26, 2012 @ 3:00 am
It seems that the white glow around the perimeter of the windows is coming from light reflected from the exterior body of the cupola. This seems to be one little detail the designers did not anticipate. Simply having the last 8 inches or so of the exterior of the cupola (leading to the windows) painted black, would have eliminated most of that light. I know that would have changed the heating characteristics a little bit, but I’d bet it wasn’t even considered.
Comment by Bob Hamilton — June 26, 2012 @ 10:00 am
What are those wavy dots seen on the glass?
Comment by Bob Hamilton — June 26, 2012 @ 10:02 am
There is currently some debate in the ISS photo fan community about your June 4 image http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-31/html/iss031e095276.html – we have already found out that it’s a deep exposure (also evident from the many stars), that the Sun was 22° below the horizon and the full moon 20° above. It the Moon the light source that makes the ISS appear so bright – without shadows – or was there another source?
Comment by Daniel Fischer — December 31, 2012 @ 11:41 am