Artemis II spacecraft on the way to the Moon
Taken by Michael Rosolina on April 3, 2026 @
Friars Hill, WV, USA
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Camera Used: ZWO Seestar S50
Exposure Time: 740/1
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO: 80
Date Taken:
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Details:
After reading the discussion links here on Spaceweather, I was hoping to capture the Artemis II capsule after the translunar injection maneuver put it on the path to the Moon. The weather cooperated and the just past full Moon was very bright, but not a problem.
I used EQ mode with my Seestar S50 and plugged the coordinates from the JPL Horizons site into the custom database. After goto, the Artemis II capsule was bang in the middle of the field--although I didn't know that until I started live stacking 20 second exposures. After a couple of minutes, a little streak appeared and after another couple of minutes I knew I had it. The capsule is traveling from right to left. At the time of the capture (0634 UT), the spacecraft was about 53,000 miles away, traveling about 5,000 mph, and about mag 13.
Awesome to think that there are 4 people on that little string of beads going thousands of miles per hour away from us.
Photographer's website:
No URL provided.
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