ISS Spacewalk Captured with a Celestron

On March 23, 2022, Dr. Sebastian Voltmer took out his Celestron 11” EdgeHD telescope tube shortly after sunset and set his sights on capturing the ISS as it flew over his hometown of Saarland, Germany. Unbeknownst to him at the time, he captured an astonishing sight. After reviewing the footage, Sebastian noticed NASA astronaut Raja Chari and the European Space Agency’s Matthias Maurer on a spacewalk, performing routine maintenance on the ISS.

Sebastian’s words on his image: “I first published an initial photo highlighting where Matthias Maurer appeared on the ISS. Due to time constraints, I released this version right away on the internet, which then went viral, while I continued to work on the final image version with both highlighted astronauts. Two days after the spacewalk happened, Philip Smith, a well-known world photographer of all things ISS, contacted me. Philip Smith noticed in my picture that NASA astronaut Raja Chari is also detectable - on the robot arm ‘Canadarm2’—and he created a wonderful combination picture. I feel like I just made a once-in-a-lifetime picture. It’s probably the first ground-based image showing two spacewalkers on the ISS at the same time.” Read Space.com’s full article here.

 Want to view the ISS as it passes over you? Read our Ultimate Guide to Observing Artificial Satellites.