International Space Station and STS-129

With the Space Shuttle due to retire next year, I'm taking every opportunity to observe flyovers when the Shuttle is in flight. The Shuttle is currently docked to the ISS. On Monday, I hurried home from work and had about 5 minutes to gather the family and set up the camera. The Shuttle is currently docked to the ISS (until early Wednesday morning Nov 25, 2009). The street lights in my backyard are a problem, but I didn't have enough time to find a better location. Besides, it was COLD out!

ISS and STS-129, November 23, 2009 6:37PM MST

Shot is taken from my back porch looking NW. The four brighter starts just to the left of the ISS track is the head of Draco the Dragon. The bright star in the top left of the image is Vega in the constellation Lyra. The orange looking streaks are from the streetlights in my backyard. With the long exposure you can see visible star trails, especially to the bottom left of the image. The North Star is just out of view top right thus the shorter trails in the top right portion of the image. The image was taken with a Nikon D40, 18mm, F/5, Exposure 77.7 seconds.