Satellites Spanning the Sky: Solar Scientist Photographs Distant Commercial Satellites with Basic Camera Equipment

This long-exposure photograph taken on January 3, 2001, shows nearly two dozen space satellites hovering over Kitt Peak, AZ, southwest of Tucson. Nineteen commercial communications satellites in the image have been clearly identified using location data on the Internet. The reddish Orion Nebula and the bright star Rigel, among others, are visible as bright streaks due to the rotation of Earth during the exposure. Amateur photographer Bill Livingston, a staff scientist with the National Science Foundation's National Solar Observatory near Tucson, took the image using basic camera equipment.