The European Space Agency published the article “Tracking cities at night from the Space Station” where they describe a new NightPOD intelligent tripod head used to take long exposure photographs by eliminating the motion blur from the International Space Station:
“To help astronauts take better pictures, ESA developed a motorized tripod in collaboration with Dutch company Cosine. Called NightPod, this device compensates for the motion of the Space Station by tracking single points on Earth automatically. The subject stays centered in frame so the final image is in focus.
Astronauts enter data regarding the Station’s orbit and attitude and then NightPod can start taking pictures. It can even be set to run on its own for up to six hours.”
Here is an image of Athens taken from the ISS with the NightPod + Nikon D3s camera + 80-200mm f/2.8 lens:
