NASA astronaut captures striking full 'moonset' from ISS
Behold the beauty of the moon setting behind the curve of Earth as seen from the International Space Station.
While sunsets mark our days on Earth, moonsets are more subtle as our lunar companion quietly slides across the sky without all the fanfare of a star. But you'll look at the moon differently once you see a moonset from space.
NASA astronaut Drew Feustel shared a video this week of a chance viewing of a moonset from his vantage point orbiting on the International Space Station.
Beautiful Full “Moon-set” captured by chance on @Space_Station Sunday evening. pic.twitter.com/yAIAlWHwqQ
— A.J. (Drew) Feustel (@Astro_Feustel) May 1, 2018
The short time-lapse shows a full moon against the blackness of space. It then descends down behind the blue of the planet. While it looks like it's moving in a zig-zag, that's just an artifact of how the camera took the images used in the footage.
The ISS travels around in orbit at high speed, so the crew sees multiple sunsets, sunrises, moonsets and moonrises each day. But busy astronauts don't get to hang out at the window and watch each one of them, which makes Feustel's video all the more interesting.
The last time we caught up with Feustel, he was busy jamming out on guitar with the other astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS.
