subject: STS-131 Discovery in orbit on April 19
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http://ralfvandebergh.startje.be/vieuw.php?qid=303316 I Worked hard this week to process STS-131 images taken during the last days,
on its trip back to Earth. This one was taken on the original planned landing day.
(The orbiter landed finally one day later due to bad weather conditions in Florida)
It descended already a bit which helped certainly in resolution compared with my
earlier images taken of the mission. This was a 72 degrees pass, far from
closest distance, so theoretically, resolution can still be improved. What helped
enormously, was the great seeing above our location on that day. There is a
chance, that this is one of my last images of Discovery, depending on
circumstances and passes, because this is Dicovery's second last flight!
Additionally, this was the last flight were we see the Multi Purpose Logstics Module
(MPLM) Leonardo carried back to Earth. The large container is clearly visible in the
Payload Bay. Next time, this module will be permanently attached to the
Space Station.
Imaging: 10 inch f/4.8 Newtonian, manually tracked, ATIK instruments
ATK-2C camera, 1/500 sec exp)
Best wishes,
Ralf Vandebergh
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