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Will Gater

@willgater.bsky.social

Astronomer, author, astrophotographer. Former science journalist now working in the UK space sector to promote research, exploration & innovation. willgater.com

110 Posts524 Follower254 Folgt
Don Davis@ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · last wk.

During the recent Total Solar Eclipse the South Korean Danuri spacecraft obtained a nice view of Earth from Lunar orbit with the Moons shadow just visible on Earth. Here is their image, with attribution added, my colorized version and the nearly simultaneous EPIC-DSCOVR image used for the color.

This is a reduced version of the photo released today by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Earth is seen from Lunar orbit during the recent Total Solar eclipse. The Moon is barely showing shadows behind the sunlit surfaces, and the shadow of the Moon itself is just at the horizon, or perhaps 'Limb' better suits an orbital view. One very wide shadow shows a fuzzy edge on a distant rise. I added the attribution. This is my version of the Danuri Lunar orbiter photo, with color added. I combined their Earth photo with a color EPIC-DSCOVR image made at about the same time, rotated a little in 3D to better match the Danuri viewing angle for compositing. The sharpness of the B&W original is preserved with the DSCOVR full Earth photo mostly used for the color values. I also prefer this orientation with the foreground Moon at the bottom.This is the EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) image from the DSCOVR satellite made at close to the same time as the Danuri image, shown in reduced form but otherwise as released. The exposure is naturally for the sunlit Earth and clouds. The Moon shadow's wide peripheral zone of gradual darkening, the 'penumbra' is where the illumination decreases as more of the Sun is eclipsed. At this time the outermost shadow area was near the Great Lakes, from this perspective a circular zone of that radius thus surrounds the progressively underexposed zone around the Moon shadow. If the exposure were adjusted to define the actual umbra, or zone of totality, the resulting small black dot in the image , about 30 percent the size of the underexposed portion seen here, would be surrounded by the greatly overexposed fully sunlit rest of the world.
Will Gater@willgater.bsky.social · 2w ago

The progression of yesterday’s partial solar eclipse from Dartmoor, Devon. Captured with a small refractor telescope & DSLR combo equipped with a certified solar filter. All frames manually aligned, composited and colourised in Photoshop. #astrophotography

A montage of 21 images of the yellowy orange solar disc aligned in 3 rows of 7 showing the Moon gradually obscuring more of the disc and then slipping away. Maximum eclipse, with a very thin crescent sun, sits at the centre of the grid.
Will Gater@willgater.bsky.social · 2w ago

Amazing views of the solar eclipse this evening under near pristine skies over Dartmoor. With 95% of Sun obscured we noticed a real temp drop & the classic, eerie, dimmed light ordinarily seen just before totality. V cool to see this effect thanks to the deep nature of the partial eclipse in Devon.

A photograph taken through a specially filtered hydrogen-alpha telescope showing a thin, red, glowing crescent sun against a black backdrop. Hundreds of crescent suns appear projected onto a piece of paper underneath a gorse bush on Dartmoor, which itself appears in shadow form in the photo. A picture of a Dartmoor landscape with an eerie, not-quite-twilight, light associated with the 95% partially eclipse sun. Gorse bushes stretch off into the middle distance and above a pastel gradient sky changes from yellowish at the horizon to light blue above.
Met Office - weather and climate@metoffice.gov.uk · 2w ago

The UK will experience a partial solar eclipse on Wednesday 12 August. The extent of the Sun's coverage and the timing of maximum obscuration will differ across the country. Never look directly at the sun; use a pinhole projector or certified eclipse glasses to view it.

Map on UK showing how much of the sun will be obscured by the moon, at maximum, during the solar eclipse on Wednesday 12th of August. this ranges from 88% in the east to 98% in the southwest.
ESA Exploration@exploration.esa.int · last mo.

Cold and vacuum snap for the ExoMars ramps at –70°C. Engineers confirmed the ramps can open fully in Mars-like conditions. This deployment will be one of the mission's most nerve-racking moments for @esa's Rosalind Franklin rover after touchdown on Mars in 2030.

Euclid Consortium@ec-euclid.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If you are in the London/UK area right now, #Euclid has an interactive exhibition at the @royalsociety.org's #SummerScience exhibition. Open until Sunday 5 July. See you there! #ESAEuclid #astronomy #space #research

Euclid UK@eucliduk.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Euclid, the dark universe has arrived at the @royalsociety.org's #SummerScience exhibition! Our team of scientists, engineers and public engagement professionals, ranging from undergraduate students to senior professors, will be here until Sunday...

A group photo of today's team at the Euclid, the dark universe detective exhibit. In the foreground is a 1:8 scale model of the Euclid space telescope, facing toward the camera. Behind in the middle of the area are 8 volunteers in white Euclid t-shirts, all smiling. Surrounding them are colourful interpretation boards of Euclid images and interactives.
Space Telescope Science Institute@stsci.edu · 4mo ago

Well, isn’t this a sight for sore eyes! 😍 Our beloved Hubble appears in this amazing image from one of Vantor's WorldView Legion satellites. It was 36 years ago today that Hubble was launched in the bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Vantor.

A detailed image of the Hubble Space Telescope floating in space, showing its solar panels and cylindrical body in space.
Will Gater@willgater.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Loving seeing the Artemis II lunar far side photos – and Mare Orientale def the star of the show. For comparison to the crew’s ‘bird’s eye’ view, here’s a pastel sketch I did at the eyepiece in 2022 showing how tricky it is to see the Orientale basin on the limb from 🌍 (with good libration!).

A photo of a sketchbook page with a pastel pencil sketch of the edge of the Mare Orientale basin on the lunar limb. Pastel pencils appear on the image. A scanned pastel pencil sketch of the edge of the Mare Orientale basin made at a telescope eyepiece from Earth.
ESA Exploration@exploration.esa.int · 5mo ago

👨‍🚀 The #Artemis II crew are now further from home than any humans ever, and European engines brought them there 🚀. 🌍 The record of 400 171 km was previously held by the Apollo 13 mission 🌕.

(April 6, 2026) In this fully illuminated view of the Moon, the near side (the hemisphere we see from Earth), is visible on the right. It is identifiable by the dark splotches that cover its surface. These are ancient lava flows from a time early in the Moon’s history when it was volcanically active. The large crater west of the lava flows is Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide crater that straddles the Moon’s near and far sides. Orientale's left half is not visible from Earth, but in this image we have a full view of the crater. Everything to the left of the crater is the far side, the hemisphere we don’t get to see from Earth because the Moon rotates on its axis at the same rate that it orbits round us. Image Credit: NASA
Don Davis@ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Space art in its roots has been an effort to anticipate sights that future space travelers may one day see. In the late 1940s Chesley Bonestell painted a moonlit Earth that appeared in 'The Conquest of Space'. This modest work shows a view broadly similar to that revealed in the new Artemis photo.

Astronomical space art ideally shows something of what is known about the subject as well as what it is about the subject one finds visually appealing. This is a scan of an illustration in the classic book 'The Conquest of Space' by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell. Earth is covering the Sun, with Bonestell's very narrow version of the Zodiacal Light extending from behind Earth on both sides. The moonlit Earth shows Africa and the reflection of the Moon on the oceans. A suggestion of cloud detail shows a latitudinal detail bias that was common in his Earth portrayals. In the orientation of the visual elements this painting, done a lifetime ago, carried forward a vision that has just been seen by human eyes and photographed with state of the art equipment. #Sciart
Will Gater@willgater.bsky.social · 5mo ago

So cool to see the first libration zone images of the Moon from the Artemis II crew. Have been looking forward to these! 🌔 That’s the Mare Orientale on the left limb of the Moon with the Lacus Veris & Lacus Autumni showing up well. Grimaldi much further onto the disc than we’re used to on Earth!

European Space Agency@esa.int · 5mo ago

✅ #Artemis II update: the Orion spacecraft with its European Service Module is now more than halfway to its destination, and crew preparations for lunar flyby are under way 🧪🔭 @exploration.esa.int

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – in the centre of the image – peers out the window of the Orion spacecraft on day 3 of NASA's Artemis II mission. The controls over the commander and pilot seats are illuminated in the foreground, but the cabin is otherwise dark to avoid unnecessary glares on the windows.
ESA Exploration@exploration.esa.int · 5mo ago

#Artemis II update: our European Service Module's main engine performed the translunar injection so precisely that flight controllers in Houston decided to cancel the first of three outbound trajectory correction burns on the way to the Moon 🥳

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Will Gater@willgater.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Amateur astronomers! Do you have a small telescope (4”+ aperture) & ability to record video at 25fps? There’s an opportunity on Monday/Tuesday to support the Artemis II citizen science looking for impact flashes from meteoroids hitting the Moon. See here for more: science.nasa.gov/citizen-scie...

Impact Flash! - NASA Science

You and your telescope can join a global network of amateur astronomers documenting meteors hitting the moon.

science.nasa.gov

Will Gater@willgater.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Huge congrats to NASA on the launch of Artemis II. 🚀🌔 Great to see the UK playing its part too, with Goonhilly providing tracking support from the Lizard, the Airbus teams in Stevenage who developed parts of the ESM and Slough-based John Crane providing specialized components for the prop systems.👏

A photograph of the Space Launch System rocket launching against a sea and sky backdrop rising on a cloud of steam and smoke. Two large lightning towers appear in the foreground. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
UK Space Agency@ukspaceagency.bsky.social · 5mo ago

From the heart of Cornwall, @goonhilly.org is gearing up to support NASA's Artemis II mission, providing critical lunar communications tracking as astronauts venture back to the Moon. 📡🌒 It's a great example of the UK's contribution to global space exploration. 🚀 Read more 👇

Goonhilly@goonhilly.org · 5mo ago

🚨 We're getting ready to track NASA's Artemis II mission from our Cornwall HQ! 🚨 Learn more about this and how we're contributing to NASA’s long‑term Moon‑to‑Mars exploration strategy: www.goonhilly.org/Goonhilly-to...

Will Gater@willgater.bsky.social · 5mo ago

40 years ago last night ESA’s first interplanetary mission, Giotto, zipped past Comet Halley. It paved the way for missions like Rosetta, and is a great example of the UK’s tremendous space science heritage, having been built at Filton in Bristol, with UK PIs on some of the science instruments too.

European Space History@eurospacehistory.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A very special opening of material from the #ESAarchives celebrates the 40th anniversary of Giotto’s historic flyby of Comet Halley, in photos, images and documentation. historicalarchives.esa.int/giotto-comet...

ESA Giotto project manager David Dale presenting mission to press at encounter media event, 13 March 1986 ( © ESA ECSR)