Busy Sky

May 21, 2015

BusySkyAthos

Photographer: Constantine Emmanouilidi
Summary Author: Constantine Emmanouilidi

The photo above shows a busy sky over the Chalkidiki Peninsula of northeastern Greece. This composite image was taken from the summit of Mount Athos (6,660 ft or 2,030 m above sea level), facing north. It features a double pass of the International Space Station (left to right at bottom center), several Iridium flares (at top right center, for example), quite a few meteors (top left) and numerous contrails. Click here to see an annotated version of this image. It took me 10 hours to hike to the mountain, hauling 110 lbs (50 kilos) of equipment, another 14 hours to capture all the streaks and passes and approximately 15 hours to make the final image -- after many cups of coffee.