ESA astronaut Rosemary Coogan points at a lunar-like landscape with a camera designed to take pictures on the surface of the Moon during the Artemis missions.

The seventh edition of the PANGAEA geology course trained her, ESA astronaut reserve member Arnaud Prost and Norishige Kanai from the Japanese space agency JAXA to be effective field explorers and act as the eyes of scientists in unique places in Europe.

When it comes to discovering new places, pictures play an important role. A camera set to capture amazing Moon images for humankind became part of the astronauts’ toolkit during the last week of the training in Lanzarote, Spain.

Rosemary was part of an international team of astronauts, engineers and scientists testing the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC) to improve its design for handheld use on the lunar surface.

During the Apollo programme, cameras didn’t have viewfinders, so astronauts were trained to aim the camera from the chest, where it was attached to the front of the spacesuit. In contrast, the Artemis camera’s buttons are rearranged for easier handling by astronauts wearing thick gloves during moonwalks. The Moon model is equipped with a thermal blanket that protects it from abrasive lunar dust and extreme temperatures.

HULC promises to provide sharp images in low light during Artemis III, a mission set to land on the South Pole of the Moon, close to permanently shadowed craters. Some of Europe’s best planetary scientists participating in PANGAEA were excited about the great amount of detail captured by the camera from a distance, both in shadowed and highly illuminated areas.

Rosemary had the chance to handle the camera during an imagery meeting with NASA in Europe in 2023. Now, she has tested the camera’s performance in realistic scenarios for geological exploration.

“This training is teaching us how to take the right samples, make the right descriptions, and take the right photos, so the scientists have everything they need,” she says.

One novelty was the use of a 200 mm telephoto lens that would allow crews to take images of distant objects and guide decisions about where to explore first during time-limited moonwalks.

For more Moon-like shots, check ESA's PANGAEA gallery with Artemis camera tests in Lanzarote, Spain.

Credits: ESA – A. Romeo

Tags:   ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology Rosemary Coogan PANGAEA Lanzarote Canary Islands Canarias Islas Canarias Volcano Lava field Handheld Universal Lunar Camera HULC

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Images of Saturn, top left was taken in 2016, bottom right this year (2024) - all with the same equipment. As well as the orientation of the rings changing you can also see the impact of the planets gain in altitude on the quality of the images!
Celestron Edge HD11 scope, Televue 2.5x Powermate & ZWO ASI174MM camera.

Tags:   astronomy astrophotography asi174mm celestron celestronedgehd11 planets powermate solar system space zwo zwoasi saturn

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Sunspot AR3784 imaged in white light and rendered in false colour, 11th August 2024, Celestron Edge HD11, ZWO ASI174MM camera and Baader solar film & green filter

Tags:   asi174mm astronomy astrophotography celestron celestronedgehd11 london solar system space Sun sunspots zwo zwoasi

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What a spectacular Perseids meteor show this year! In the 3 hours spent on the hill of Knole Park in the company of curious deers in the dark, my friend and me saw more than 20 meteors with the naked eye. On camera, pointing at Knole House (a National Trust listed mansion in Sevenoaks), I caught 5 meteors in that area of sky. But as a bonus we also have a lovely conjunction of Jupiter and Mars,(lower left above Knole House), Hyades Cluster (The V shape star cluster with Aldebaran/eye of the bull touching Knole House in the middle), and Pleiades/Seven Sisters failing to stop the meteor falling on Knole House! So, this is one of the five meteor captures. I will post a couple more up as they each have an interesting story arrangement :)

Capture details:

Camera: Canon EOS 650D
Lens: Samyang 16mm F2
ISO: 800
Exposure: 6 seconds
Aperture: full F2.0
Tripod: Manfrotto BeFree

Used a laptop tethered to camera to capture still images every 11 seconds (so 5 seconds between shutter closing and opening) direct to laptop drive. For some reason I could not get the interval to be shorter so I would have likely missed more meteors.


Software:
Canon Utilities for timelapse captures. Camera Raw for level adjustments and cropping.

Tags:   Perseid meteor shower jupiter mars conjunction knole house sevenoaks

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Sunspot AR3780 imaged in white light and rendered in false colour, 11th August 2024, Celestron Edge HD11, ZWO ASI174MM camera and Baader solar film & green filter

Tags:   sun asi174mm astronomy astrophotography celestronedgehd11 celestron london solar system space sunspots zwo zwoasi

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