A sudden burst of red light flickered above a thunderstorm, and for a brief moment, Earth’s upper atmosphere revealed one of its most elusive secrets. From 250 miles above the surface, aboard the ...

One of Pettit’s photos, which you can see above, was a 15-second time exposure. He says his tracker completes a rotation every 90 minutes to match the ISS’s pitch rate.

The long-exposures took between 20 and 60 minutes, depending on the app’s recommendation, but the length of each exposure was largely up to us.

St. Augustine, Florida You are correct, many long-exposure astrophotos span multiple nights. I typically stay on a target for months at a time, especially when I’m living in a cloudy place.