I reflexively hated the light streaks at first, but then I thought about it and realized I’ve never seen the speed of ISS orbit represented in a photo before and that’s kinda cool, especially juxtaposed with the Milky Way detail that was only possible with the very same long exposure that produce the streaks.
Idk. Space usually looks pretty still and tranquil, so having that and a sense of fast movement in the same shot is pretty cool I guess.
“Best ever” though? Hell, what does that even mean? It’s a cool photo, let’s just leave it at that.
The ISS rotates around the earth every 90 minutes, so before Don Pettit brought a custom built astrophotography rig up there this picture would have been impossible to take.
It's weird that Eric Burger neglected to put this picture into perspective for people who aren't 100% up to date on their space news.
"In this image, one can see the core of the Milky Way galaxy, zodiacal light (sunlight diffused by interplanetary dust), streaks of SpaceX Starlink satellites, individual stars, an edge-on view of the atmosphere that appears in burnt umber due to hydroxide emissions, a near-sunrise just over the horizon, and nighttime cities appearing as streaks."