Astronaut Captures Stunning Image of Flowing Silver Snakes

NASA astronaut Don Pettit has built a name for himself with his exceptional talent for capturing breathtaking images of Earth and surrounding space during his three prior missions to the International Space Station (ISS).

Since his arrival at the ISS for a fourth mission earlier this month, Pettit, who at 69 is the oldest currently active astronaut at NASA, has quickly engaged the station’s cameras to produce and share stunning new visuals taken from 250 miles above our planet.

In his latest update posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday, Pettit showcased a series of stunning, artistic photographs featuring moonlight shimmering over regions of the Amazon basin in South America.

“While photographing cities at night somewhere over the Amazon basin, I observed the light from a nearly-full moon reflecting off the winding rivers of the rainforest,” Pettit detailed in his post, likening the waterways to “flowing silver snakes” and “glowing golden claws.”

Moonshine from space. Somewhere over the Amazon basin, shooting photos of cities at night, I noticed the light from a near-full moon reflecting off of the meandering rainforest rivers. In the cool moon-ish light these rivers became flowing silver snakes. When the moonlight was… pic.twitter.com/SGIUAJLhpP

— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) September 24, 2024

Pettit, as usual, shared insights into the equipment and camera settings he used for these shots. For this particular series, he utilized a full-frame Nikon Z9 camera paired with a 200mm lens set to f/2, with a shutter speed of 1/320 seconds, and an ISO of 25600. He noted that he processed the images in Photoshop prior to sharing them.

Alongside his scientific research aboard the ISS, Pettit enjoys utilizing the station’s seven-window Cupola module to capture stunning views of Earth with his Nikon Z9. Recently, he shared a captivating nighttime photograph of London and, in another impressive moment, managed to capture the Polaris Dawn Crew Dragon capsule re-entering Earth’s atmosphere at high speed after a historic five-day mission.

Pettit is scheduled to remain in orbit until March 2025, providing him ample opportunity to create even more remarkable works of art from the cosmos.