NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick is preparing to return to Earth after spending seven months living and working aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
After arriving at the orbital outpost, Dominick — on his first mission to space — quickly earned a reputation for being an ace photographer, using the facility’s plethora of high-end cameras and lenses to capture amazing shots from his unique vantage point some 250 miles above Earth. Sharing his content on social media, the American astronaut has always been happy to reveal how he captured the imagery, offering extra insight for folks interested to know more.
We’ve gathered together some of Dominick’s most impressive images and videos captured during his time on the station, beginning with this stunner taken in August showing the moon and a gorgeous aurora over Earth:
The “upside down” orientation of the image originally posted is how we are oriented in the cupola when we observe earth. I normally rotate the images 180 degrees before posting them online since that appears more natural if you haven’t been hanging out in the cupola. I guess I… pic.twitter.com/9mmS1nGqJE
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) August 11, 2024
This one shows a Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station, with another aurora in the distance:
https://twiiter.com/dominickmatthew/status/1819484749661938108
The moon and Earth:
1/ A sliver of a moon rises out of noctilucent clouds and appears to look towards the horizon awaiting the imminent sunrise.
1/250s, f5.6, ISO 6400, 170mm (50 to 500mm lens), cropped pic.twitter.com/6vq9NfdXx0
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) July 6, 2024
An experimental image featuring star trails:
Experimenting with long exposures trying to capture star trails with the beautiful structures of the ISS. In the last of five 30 second exposures the sun cracked the horizon creating the brilliant blue on the service module solar arrays. 5 stacked images, 24mm, f4, ISO 800. pic.twitter.com/eyX92X2CoY
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) June 25, 2024
An incredible view of the stars:
Experimenting with time lapses out of different windows around the ISS. This is one of a few windows that face away from earth in a compartment in the service module called the ПхО. ISO is cranked high and the exposure is a possibly too long (1.6s) as you can see the stars… pic.twitter.com/MJB3hDdIH8
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) August 4, 2024
This image shows Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft during its troubled visit to the ISS:
We have been looking at aurora out the cupola windows a lot lately. Starliner was doing some testing today so we decided to check it out from the Dragon windows. Timing was great for the aurora to line up nicely with Starliner’s service module thrusters. pic.twitter.com/mlsbLxFaJL
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) June 15, 2024
This time-lapse over southeast Asia is packed full of goodies, including lightning strikes, city lights, and a mysterious red light off the coast of Japan:
Timelapse traveling Northeast over Southeast Asia.
In order of appearance:
* So many lightning strikes
* Colored lights from fishing boats – one of my favorite things to see at night from the ISS
* Juxtaposition of city lights on the Korean Peninsula
* Red lights North of… pic.twitter.com/vN5VnCKirb— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) September 14, 2024
An impressive view of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which you can view this month:
Comet rises up over the horizon just before orbital sunrise with aurora streaking by.
50mm, 1.2, 1/4s, ISO 6400 pic.twitter.com/SlwWdFwQgH
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) September 29, 2024
In this one you can enjoy the “mind-blowing” solar array reflections and a beautiful view of the Milky Way:
A timelapse of solar arrays reflecting aurora and city lights as they align themselves for the impending sunrise.
The solar array light reflections were so mind blowing that I stayed up till 1AM to shoot a few more sunrises. Luckily we get sunrises every 90 minutes.
One of the… pic.twitter.com/k2V4XM6weJ
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) September 1, 2024
Yes, that’s the Nile River all the way down there:
Flying up the Nile River to the Mediterranean Sea.
1/5s, f1.4, ISO 12800
Need to subtract the dark frame and other processing later. It was awesome to see on such a clear night. pic.twitter.com/fMucJdfw74
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) June 30, 2024
Another great time-lapse. Look out for when the cosmonaut turns off the lights inside the Soyuz, and the city of San Francisco far below:
So many cool little things in this short timelapse . . .
* a cosmonaut turns off the lights inside the Soyuz
* the lights of San Francisco reflect off the Soyuz solar arrays before we see San Francisco
* San Francisco Bay Area
* different layers of the atmosphere are seen in… pic.twitter.com/UQWxSZ6MyS— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) August 30, 2024
A phenomenal picture of the moon setting over the Pacific:
The moon setting over the Pacific.
Went to the cupola to shoot Tropical Storm Hone near Hawaii but right after we passed by the storm the moon started to set.
400mm, ISO 500, 1/20000s shutter speed, f2.8, cropped, denoised. pic.twitter.com/YtboVnRNpF
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) August 24, 2024
Here we see “the last sliver of the orbital sunset” as it shines through the station’s solar arrays:
Behind the space station, the last sliver of the orbital sunset shines through the service module solar arrays.
15mm, T1.8, ISO 6400, 1.6s pic.twitter.com/6mb8j7VSwr
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) September 7, 2024
Some behind-the-scenes footage:
A quick behind the scenes look at how we setup portraits of ourselves peering out of a Dragon window into the stars from Starliner's cockpit window. pic.twitter.com/3Kek11PTFv
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) July 23, 2024
Finally, some footage of the master photographer at work inside the station’s seven-window Cupola module:
We are going home to Earth soon. I am excited to be with my family and friends again. But I am sure going to miss popping into the Cupola to take images of what Earth has to show us each day.
Sharing some raw video/audio in an attempt to share a bit of what it is like to watch… pic.twitter.com/1ZAmBgZxfx
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) September 27, 2024
There are many more photos and videos to enjoy on the astronaut’s social media account.
Dominick will return home in the coming days alongside fellow NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. They’ll travel aboard the same SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that brought them to the station in March.
