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Morning has broken: Breathtaking image of the first light of dawn creeping over the horizon is captured by astronaut
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has wowed Twitter with his pictures taken from the International Space Station
His latest image is of dawn breaking over the south west of the United States last week.

A breathtaking image of the moon rising above the United states as dawn breaks have been posted on Twitter by an astronaut on the International Space Station.

The stunning shot, which bears striking resemblance to the beginning of the opening credits of a Universal film, was posted by Canadian Chris Hadfield who has gained a cult following on Twitter for his images of the Earth from space.

The image was shot over southwestern America and will be one of Hadfield’s last tweets from space after he announced that his return to earth will commence later this month.

One of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s latest pictures from the International Space Station shows a darkened south-eastern United States just before dawn, with the moon rising above

Some of the snapshots of Astronaut Chris Hadfield…..

Unmistakable: The Thames can be clearly seen snaking its way  through the giant urban sprawl of London in this picture

Commander of the International Space Station, Chris has gained an army of followers on Facebook and Twitter with his daily updates from space which feature beautiful pictures and news on the progress of the various missions he and his colleagues carry out.

Hadfield has been taking the Twitterverse by storm from aboard the ISS, which orbits the Earth at 8km a second, since he arrived back on December 21.

The astronaut, who has also posted a variety of amusing videos showing what it is like to shave, vomit and brush your teeth in space, uses a long lens camera to capture the stunning detail of the Earth.

Among his favourite places to photograph is the Sahara in Africa and he explains that he waits until the sun is directly over the desert to get the best shot.

He says: ‘The beauty of space station, though, is if it’s not here this time, tomorrow it might be, or maybe a month from now.

‘There’s not a race to get a picture. You can be patient, like a hunter.’

He says that it’s not Instagram, it’s ‘Space-a-gram’ and that the key steps are: ‘Focus, frame, and fire’.

He added: ‘We orbit 400km above the earth, so if you want to get a good detailed picture of something you need a long lens. I have one velcroed to the wall.’

Chris uses a special setting on his camera to deal with the bright glare of light from the Earth against the pitch black backdrop of space.

He takes pictures in as high a resolution as possible, so his camera’s memory card gets full very quickly.

The first Canadian to walk in space, Commander Hadfield, 53, a former air force fighter pilot, has previously flown two Space Shuttle missions in 1995 and 2001.

Hadfield has amassed 226,000 fans on Facebook and 740,000 followers on Twitter.

He announced that his ‘fiery fall’ to earth will commence on May 13 after the arrival of a new Russian commander.

source::::mailonline

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