Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques => Topic started by: Guillermo Luijk on April 12, 2026, 01:26:30 pm
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NASA's astronaut Reid Wiseman took this picture from the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II mission:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf5YOPfs649pSOgAeoStqSacf9IW-ldv24iItfuiE-LF4fI71OrLCC27p_WySJ1snXuUhY5E406F1ArmMmgVtk1LKoTQWFs542o68rEhVlHdfLfVdJkuhQTVGahmg0yVJKhiOJGAhN5BGlmGO4i2POQUOgxow1WGxrnt6VudGVxoj8-1bzqs1QT6fnuUEl/s16000/helloworld512.jpg)
It was taken with a Nikon D5 FF camera and a focal length of 22mm. With such a wide angle lens, the picture for sure was taken very close to Earth, so I wanted to estimate this distance. By comparing the ratio between the Earth's diameter in the picture and the whole frame diagonal, we can apply some math to have it:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM9fMZO8u4hvtZJHppFJXFGLjPH7UgfdQCQctI4mmqBrG3TPXobXB48ETHbm636dTUW7qpeAaevqfWdbBKwY8vRutvWcpUrp8JwTvjvX-P-7pTjCux7s1e97iEJC6fyQjpYAyLG6rBYFuH9zQfAtRwU2a-nBCFHtExh_A9n2q6wESVlo-b4lX3_0CIDt5m/s16000/orioncalculos512.png)
The distance obtained is: 9.889km, indeed close to the Earth which has a radius of 6.371km. These are the calculated values of distance and camera FOV:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3mzsUf2CRgcxGHzNfE0Z-dwoBTNeWhOkctyMtW8gnLVckWGH9WB4HvklwkXCXNo7MZPeXVBQm-UlWgwh0rNyxarlg3i1zAbsATzYsKFW1qm-E0kZ9tqaIPSlRG4s-yvR2Aw8YwGouswgDqUMy-bdkV2cavLoFhxbp9zFq5c01PnhxIsvumtZYcyjMif7W/s16000/orion512.png)
NASA's own CGI animation seems to match this result:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGwNyGA-AjIqoFaesfc5Q-6V7isKXkM_2Sji7ILFd17alpJPkyNtlwgOAUKwj991yxbST1CqykBoHxxKR2wiMcLVp0QlaFnnW6LFYmr82Xbe1ix93B_g9eNXZn6JCspyfvH76WIxsfV-Y1aUVZZLo7y3-YpEqI3ytYAxa9Z5bijdh5XumUHlFo59Opv1vV/s16000/animNASA512.png)
More detailedly:
https://www.overfitting.net/2026/04/a-que-distancia-de-la-tierra-se-hizo-la.html
Regards