By using Photoshop on photos taken by NASA at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, London-based illustrator Chris Keegan is able to create beautiful images of people and creatures out of deep space nebulae.

The process begins a lot like those summer days as a kid lying in the grass and picking shapes out of the clouds — just replace clouds with celestial imagery. Once Keegan has picked out a shape, he takes the image into Photoshop and strengthens that shape until it will be recognizable to everyone. Read more…

The space agencies that run the Hubble Space Telescope may have some of the most powerful photographic equipment at their disposal, but every now and then they can still use a little help from amateur astrophotographers.

Amateur astrophotographer Robert Gendler created the beautiful photograph above showing the spiral galaxy M106 by compositing existing imagery captured by the Hubble telescope with his own photos captured from Earth.
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Astronaut photographers on the International Space Station have been beaming quite a few photographs of Earth as of late, but have you ever wondered how they manage capture relatively sharp photographs of Earth’s cities at night?

The speed at which the ISS hurtles around our planet is indeed a major challenge for low-light photography, and astronauts in the past have tried to overcome it by using high-speed film or by doing some manual tracking (which is very hit-and-miss). Luckily, space shooters nowadays have a new special tool up their sleeve: the NightPod.
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Earlier this week, Iran generated quite a bit of media attention after claiming that it had successfully sent a monkey to space and safely brought it back down to Earth. The tiny monkey was reportedly sent into sub-orbital space 75 miles above ground.

To prove its accomplishment, Iran distributed the above photograph of the monkey strapped into its little spaceship chair.
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Photographs captured by astronauts on the International Space Station are in the public domain, so they’re often remixed into gorgeous time-lapse videos. Italian filmmaker Giacomo Sardelli went a step beyond many of the ISS time-lapses we’ve seen by adding in more than just epic music: he included short audio messages recorded by the astronauts who worked in the space station.
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We’ve written a number of posts regarding the NASA Curiosity rover’s photography on Mars, but have you ever wondered who it is that “presses the shutter”? If you have, you’re not alone. The Planetary Society recently received the question as well, and has published an official explanation from NASA:

It would be nice if the pictures took themselves. But it takes a village, it seems, to get a picture taken on Mars [...] for a single snap shot you might have the Geology Science Theme Group conceive and design it en masse; the PUL-1 plan it; the entire (on staff) Science Operations Working Group discuss it and include it in the daily plan, the PUL-2 actually write it, and the engineering uplink team review and approve it before the Ace hits the button to radiate it, with the sol’s command, bundle to the rover. That’s a group the size of a small village.

Camera operator Mark Lemmon also talks about how the team often goes to great lengths to nail lighting and composition. With so many resources drained into each photo, casual snapshots aren’t exactly Curiosity’s thing.

Who is the photographer behind Mars rover photos? Answer from Mark Lemmon [The Planetary Society]

For his project titled “Alienation,” Italian photographer Graziano Panfili shot portraits of ordinary people wearing space suits in ordinary locations. Subjects are seen standing or sitting in places such as elevators, bedrooms, bathrooms, and basements.
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For his project titled “Bubbles“, London-based photographer Jason Tozer photographed soap bubbles in a way that makes them look photos of planets taken from space. Unlike NASA’s actual space probe photos, Tozer’s images contain wild, psychedelic colors.
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Want to know how astronauts photograph in space? Just ask Donald Pettit, NASA astronaut and “amateur” photographer. Donald Pettit has called the International Space Station home for over 370 days, and in that time he’s captured some of the most mind-blowing photos of space – and Earth – we’ve ever seen.
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You know those digital photos you’ve archived by burning onto DVDs and sticking under your bed? You’ll be lucky if the files are still readable by the end of your life. Photographer Trevor Paglen wants to archive photos for a much longer time… and by “much longer”, we mean billions of years. He’s not just doing this for himself, either, but for all of humanity.
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