Don Pettit
@astro_Pettit
NASA Astronaut, now on Earth
Cosmic colors at sunrise; never get tired of seeing what the new day brings

Elusive flamingo pink aurora in a vibrant atomic oxygen lightshow. Station flies above the green aurora but straight through the higher altitude reds.
San Francisco Bay Area photographed at night from the ISS. Headquartered here are many of the largest companies on Earth, and countless startups trying to take their place. NASA also has roots in Silicon Valley with @NASAAmes, seen as the dark runway strip at bottom center,…

It's not every day you see a lunar eclipse from space! Taken on March 14, 2025, this image shows the lunar eclipse on the sunlit edge of Earth's atmosphere one orbit before the total phase. I was waiting to photograph the totality phase on the next orbit but I could not see the…

The Ganges river delta, photographed in near-infrared from the ISS.

High resolution star trail from the SpaceX Crew 9 Dragon, marked by a fleet of flashing Starlink satellites, glowing atmosphere, soon to rise sun, and arcing stars. Captured over the Pacific Ocean with Nikon Z9, Sigma 14mm f1.4 lens, effective 24 minute exposure compiled from…

When in space, you get to name what you discover. I call this Yo-Yo trick "Return to Home Planet." In weightlessness, to keep the Yo-Yo under control, the string must be kept taut by maintaining circular motion.
SpaceX Dragon flies between the stars of deep space, and a sea of clouds lit by the red upper atmospheric airglow. This is a 20 second exposure taken with my orbital sidereal drive that tracks the stars thus allowing long exposures.

From @Space_Station, we have a unique vantage point to observe lightning storms from directly above them. Much like from the ground, they appear as rapid, intense flashes that are over as quickly as they started. But, with the help of handheld cameras and a bit of practice (and,…
Amsterdam, Netherlands seen at night from the ISS. The city's famous canals and waterways cut distinct lines of darkness around modern lights.

Green aurora timelapse, crawling like amoebas across the sky. Views like this never get old.
From orbit, atolls of the Maldives look like thin irregular rings. Can you spot them in this image?

The Grand Canyon region photographed in near-infrared from the ISS, reminiscent of the surface of Mars.

Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this sprite. Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below. We have a great view above the clouds, so…
Comet C/2024 G3 Atlas, photographed ~235 million miles away from the International Space Station, framed by Crew 8 Dragon and Canada arm.

Free flying propeller on ISS. Video is running at real speed. In weightlessness the propeller can slowly move through the cabin atmosphere.
Depths of space meets depths of the Pacific Ocean.
