A new image captures NASA astronauts on a spacewalk. From the ground?

 

You are among the first to see people in space, from the ground.

Sebastian Voltmer, a German photographer, made history when he photographed NASA astronauts performing a spacewalk from Earth. Voltmer instantly shared his success on Twitter, where it has already gone viral.

Yesterday I witnessed the #spacewalk shortly after sunset. Here comes a first photo. #ESA #astronaut Matthias Maurer was just "climbing" at this moment.
The rod-shaped structure (Canadarm2) is the robot arm.
Greetings from Matthias Maurers hometown - it was very exciting. #iss pic.twitter.com/39Q7YlG64u

— Dr. Sebastian Voltmer (@SeVoSpace) March 24, 2022

Voltmer's spacewalk happened to be one of the longest in recent history, with NASA's Raja Chari and the European Space Agency's Matthias Maurer performing major repair work on the International Space Station (ISS).

The photographer of the night skies

While it may appear by chance, this isn't Voltmer's first photograph of the ISS. His Instagram account has almost 1,500 photos of the Moon, the International Space Station, and the equipment he uses to photograph the night sky.

Even on March 23, when the photograph was taken, Voltmer was going about his night photography routine, which included photographing the ISS from below. Voltmer also shows how he uses a telescope in his garden to take photographs of the space station in a short video uploaded on Twitter.

Voltmer was at Sankt Wendel, Germany, on the night of March 23, Maurer's hometown. Voltmer claims on Instagram that he met Maurer three years ago and that he even produced a song for his ISS expedition. As a result, Voltmer took to Twitter to publicise his achievement, which quickly went viral.

Furthermore, Voltmer believes his shot captures the new camera that was placed as well as SpaceX's Dragon capsule docked at the ISS, all of which are noteworthy.

Help from a buddy

Another space photographer, Phillip Smith, contacted Voltmer about the second astronaut in the shot more than two days after the Twitter tweet. Smith, like Voltmer, is a big fan of the ISS, as Voltmer noted on Instagram, and Smith even went to the trouble of combining Voltmer's image with NASA's live video of the spacewalk.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dr. Sebastian Voltmer (@sebastianvoltmer)

Voltmer believes he may have just acquired a once-in-a-lifetime shot, as this image is likely to be the first to catch two simultaneous spacewalking astronauts from Earth.

For those interested in space photography, Voltmer utilised a Celestron 11-inch EdgeHD telescope, a GM2000 mount, and an ASI290 planetary camera to capture the image, according to Space.com.