Seán Doran

@theseaning.bsky.social

✨ 🌍 🛰️ 📽️

@theseaning.bsky.socialReposted by @theseaning.bsky.social

'Ambient Earth'

Perspective is lost when the world speeds by.

This ambitious 7.5hr 4k compilation, crafted over months of meticulous restoration, invites you to slow down and experience Earth in real time just as astronauts do.

Butch Wilmore / ISS / NASA / ESRS / Seán Doran

youtu.be/alJMoaKpV_E

@theseaning.bsky.social

'Ambient Earth'

Perspective is lost when the world speeds by.

This ambitious 7.5hr 4k compilation, crafted over months of meticulous restoration, invites you to slow down and experience Earth in real time just as astronauts do.

Butch Wilmore / ISS / NASA / ESRS / Seán Doran

youtu.be/alJMoaKpV_E

@chinaspace.bsky.socialReposted by @theseaning.bsky.social

Celebrating Mars New Year, as the Red Planet begins another 687-Earth-day journey around the Sun. Featuring images from the surface and orbit, courtesy of China’s Tianwen-1—the first mission to successfully deploy a lander, rover and orbiter on Mars.

@chinaspace.bsky.socialReposted by @theseaning.bsky.social

On 23 September, the European-Chinese SMILE mission was declared ready for science operations, after launching on 19 May and reaching its target orbit on 20 June. The mission will study how Earth responds to the charged particles carried by the solar wind.

@ddavisspaceart.bsky.socialReposted by @theseaning.bsky.social

The Sunset of September 27, 2026 was an epic spectacle whose intensity and beauty were memorable. The cloud ceiling had a wide opening toward the West that admitted Sunlight which underwent progressive color changes as it briefly in turn illuminated layers of otherwise invisible cloud textures.

The Sunset of September 27th, 2026 was one of the greatest visions the sky has ever opened up and revealed to me. It was a sunset like few I can remember in many years. I knew early on what was likely as a heavy cloud ceiling was opening up far to the West with the underside textures in that part of the cloud ceiling catching the light early on from the distant sunlit clouds. Vast connected cloud formations were in turn bathed in the last sunlight which progressively turned from a golden to orange to very red, in as pure a spectral filtering of Sunlight as I can recall seeing. One layer of cloud formations after another caught the light as the rays steadily angled upwards. The most distant yellow gold clouds were dazzling, like incandescent molten gold that defied photography. Lower layers were bathed in the reddest light that contrasted in hue with the more orange colors in the illuminated parts of the broken cloud ceiling above. Wide areas of the field of view were thus illuminated, appearing and fading one after the other like a parade of vast apparitions coming and going. The last lit clouds gave up their lurid radiance reluctantly and with a very red final flourish. But the brilliance was still happening, withdrawing beyond the Western horizon as Earth's rotation carried us into the realm of the night. The Sunset lit clouds far away were still in itself illuminating clouds nearby. From their altitude the brilliance and colors along the horizon hundreds of miles away dominate the ambient lighting. This brought an extended 'echo' of the Sunset as every cloud surface facing West shone with that fading lurid glow, like a long slowly fading piano note after a great symphony. I have seen many hundreds of Sunsets and sunrises, but something about this one struck me as almost like a kind of religious experience. Awestruck wonder and numbly bathing in the experience while periodically trying to preserve a visual record.An all sky frame of the Sunset of September 27, 2026. Canon 6D with a fisheye lens. I now shoot most such sequences aimed straight up to show the entire horizon. Unfortunately due to a technical issue this became the first frame of the time lapse sequence, but I did get the extended 'afterglow'.
@stuartatkinson.bsky.socialReposted by @theseaning.bsky.social

Mars has some spectacularly insanely huge features - towering volcanoes, deep valleys, vast deserts - but kneel down in the cinnamon-hued dust and you'll also see it has exquisitely beautiful smaller features on its surface too... Sept 14th Curiosity images credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson

@chinaspace.bsky.socialReposted by @theseaning.bsky.social

The Tianwen-3, China's first Mars sample-return mission, is progressing smoothly, entering the prototype development phase with multiple technical breakthroughs and with scientific preparations underway simultaneously, said the mission's chief scientist on Sept 3.

@ddavisspaceart.bsky.socialReposted by @theseaning.bsky.social

An overhead view of the Viking 2 landing site, based on the surface photography and available maps of the sample field and various references. This was drawn with ink on a scratchboard sheet which had a printed gray dot screen on it, scraping away the ink for the lighter tones and highlights.

This is a detailed scratchboard drawing, essentially a map, of the Viking 2 landing site in front of the lander. The sampling field was mapped in detail by the mission team and that as well as other sources using stereo plotted placement of features were consulted along with the surface photography. This task was made simpler than that of Viking 1 by the flat nature of the surroundings with the rocks bases etc. more readily determined. This portrayal was drawn on one of several gray dot screen printed scratchboard sheets given me in the 80's by Chesley Bonestell during one of my visits to his Carmel house and studio. He said they were quite old even then. A rapidograph technical fountain pen was used to add the inked details as dark dots and areas, and the highlights were scraped away with an X-acto knife with a #16 blade, a narrow one tapered toward one side rather than the center. The result is thus entirely defined by black and white with no gray 'continuous tone' detail. I have one pristine sheet left which I dare not touch. #Sciart
@chinaspace.bsky.socialReposted by @theseaning.bsky.social

1/2 China has established a two-way high-speed laser link between Earth and the Moon, spanning over 400,000 km. With a 100 Mbps downlink, an 8K image could be transmitted in just ~12 seconds. 🌕

@ddavisspaceart.bsky.socialReposted by @theseaning.bsky.social

My portrayal of the Partial Lunar Eclipse of August 27-28, 2026. These were painted in Photoshop based on my observations through a 10 inch telescope and binoculars. Among the variable clouds I saw just enough of the event to get the observation I wanted, a look at the colors in the Earth shadow.

My setup for these events has been similar for 40 years. I have a stack of printed Moon images on a clipboard, little lights clipped on tripods and on me, and things arranged so only modest motions are needed for me to observe through the telescope and through the binoculars to get complimentary impressions of the colors. The telescope gives a detailed survey of the color differences in various parts of the Moon, The binoculars give an overall color summary and tend to show more saturated color. One then the other are peered through, and once in a while a photo is made with my still camera nearby kept aimed at the Moon. The photos are modest but provide tonal details in the shadows that supplement the sketches with low res but objective references. During this event I am furiously sketching atop the printed Full Moon image sheets, scribbling outlines of perceived color zones and writing color description labels. These labeled 'color by number' summaries are supplemented with sketches of the overall tonal values across the Moon, done on small printed circles provided for this purpose next to the larger printed maps. The time each sketch is made is always written next to it. All during the observing session I have a small portable shortwave radio tuned to WWV, with its eternal ticking off of the seconds and the voice of the Digital Time God. There I am alone in the night, just me and the rare event. The nominal shadow colors were seen, with the outermost zone adjacent to the Sunlit area a neutral gray, and smaller concentric zones of subdued golden, then orange surrounding the very dark rusty brick red, 'core'. The entire color range was seen on this occasion. I then reduced my sketches and visual memory into a pictorial summary. It is vital to do the balance of such work immediately afterwards while the visual impression is fresh on ones mind. The digital paintings were done on top of a digital Full Moon photo I obtained immediately after the Eclipse ended.
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