Chris Hadfield via Twitter
By Alan Boyle
Astronaut Chris Hadfield has made a name for himself as the International Space Station's first Canadian commander, the "Singing Spaceman" and Star Trek skipper William Shatner's Twitter buddy?? but he's also one heck of a photographer.
Since his arrival at the station on Dec. 21, Hadfield has posted more than 100 pictures to his Twitter account, most of them showing beautiful views of Earth below. Between his official duties and the unofficial picture-taking sessions, how does he find time to sleep?
"Yes,?I should sleep more on station," he told one follower, "but the view from the window is like a perpetual magnet, too wondrous to ignore."
The space station's six residents all take turns behind the lens, but some astronauts take the job way more seriously than others: Notable shooters from past orbital stints include NASA's Scott Kelly,?Douglas Wheelock,?Ron Garan and?Don Pettit, as well as Japan's Soichi Noguchi and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers. Hadfield is sure to take his place among them.
His favorite hangout is the seven-windowed Cupola observation deck, which provides an unparalleled view of Earth. His favorite camera? "We use primarily Nikon F2s and F3s, with a variety of lenses," he said on Twitter. "We even take them out on spacewalks, into the hard vacuum."
To get those awesome pictures of Earth landscapes, he brings out the Big Lens. "The big lens is Nikkor 600 mm, used with a 2-fold converter = 1200 mm," he tweeted. "Available for just US$10,300."
When you consider that Hadfield is delivering pictures that no one on Earth can, that seems like a small price to pay. Check out a few of Hadfield's recent masterpieces from outer space:
Chris Hadfield via Twitter
Chris Hadfield via Twitter
Chris Hadfield via Twitter
Chris Hadfield via Twitter
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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