Not very big, and further away than Cardiff

[fivemack]

On the other hand, the biggest and nearest object in low Earth orbit, and startlingly visible as it swept majestic and orange across the sky, horizon to horizon in a couple of minutes.

500mm lens, hand-held, short exposures (it's in full sunlight, so 1/1000 f/11 is reasonable), hold down the button and pray that at least once the shutter fires while the camera is momentarily stationary:



The grey rectangle on the right is one of the Space Station's solar panels, the white splodge on the left is the space shuttle Atlantis.

Advice on achieving critical focus at infinity with long lenses hand-held would be appreciated.

Smaller, and closer to home, does anyone recognise this splendid orange-spotted, four-tufted hairy bestiole that I found on a bramble?

Comments

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, I found a very similar caterpillar a couple of weeks ago and spent some time researching it as it looked so striking.

Unfortunately, for such a stunning caterpillar, it's a seemingly very boring Vapourer moth. Actually, it might be interesting to moth enthusiasts, I don't know, it just didn't strike me as terribly interesting.

[redbird]

cattitude's advice was "get a shorter lens" until I explained exactly what you meant by "at infinity," and then he changed it to "get a tripod."

But I don't know if you'll need this often enough to bother.