Don Pettit ✓
@astro_Pettit · joined 04 Jun 2011
NASA Astronaut. Photographer. Scientist. Inventor.
186 884Followers
503Following
1 127Posts total
17.8MViews on collected posts
Ultimi post
Cerchiamo nuovi post…
@astro_Pettit https://t.co/EcCMos9PIN
48.7K views · 1.6K likes
· 14 reposts · 18 replies
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Miami, USA 2024 vs 2012
Famous for its bright streets, it was only recently that Miami's many colors could be distinguished from orbit because the vast yellow glow of sodium vapor overwhelmed all others. https://t.co/Kpnxkm7DVI
89.9K views · 1.1K likes
· 43 reposts · 8 replies
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Las Vegas, USA 2025 vs 2012
Perhaps the brightest city on Earth, Vegas has continued its spectacle with new LED sources such as the Vegas Sphere, seen as the large purple spot at center. https://t.co/5Zflt2KOrn
99.7K views · 1.2K likes
· 43 reposts · 5 replies
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Monterrey, Mexico 2024 vs 2003
A striking asymmetry between the city core, and the thin urban extension through the La Estanzuela valley. https://t.co/DlcviDeBXi
99.8K views · 1.1K likes
· 42 reposts · 3 replies
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Seoul, South Korea 2025 vs 2011
City lights weave between mountain valleys and rivers, modernized to LEDs rapidly in the 2010s. https://t.co/3LfHytx4of
109K views · 1.1K likes
· 36 reposts · 2 replies
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Sao Paulo, Brazil 2025 vs 2003
Sprawling city lights, once a patchwork of mercury and sodium vapor, have been replaced entirely with LEDs. https://t.co/Jfzt1e3cb0
123.8K views · 1.4K likes
· 67 reposts · 3 replies
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Mexico City, Mexico 2025 vs 2003
A massive city with many streets, almost all transitioned to bright white LEDs. Nature preserves leave distinct dark spots that have remained unchanged. https://t.co/aFDj3DT5ic
134.1K views · 1.6K likes
· 65 reposts · 4 replies
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Chicago, USA 2024 vs 2003
The grid street layout of Chicago is immediately recognizable from orbit, and characteristic of many North American cities, and emphasize the change in color intensity. https://t.co/JO1uRZBUyq
216.8K views · 2.4K likes
· 98 reposts · 13 replies
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Hong Kong Bay Area, China 2025 vs 2003
Hong Kong has retained much of its older lighting while the nearby city of Shenzhen is entirely multi-colored LEDs! A unique visual of the differences between the special administrative region and the Chinese mainland. https://t.co/5AoNHNsC
143.8K views · 1.8K likes
· 68 reposts · 5 replies
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I have spent 23 years documenting the global LED transition of city lighting from space.
Across my 4 missions to the ISS, I have photographed every major city on Earth, building a data set of the gradual replacement of sodium vapor lighting with LEDs.
The warmer, yellow-orange
4.2M views · 32.4K likes
· 3.5K reposts · 543 replies
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@astro_Pettit this looks like pure shit just want sodium vapor back
5.5K views · 186 likes
· 0 reposts · 1 replies
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Miami in 2012 lit by sodium vapor. I have images of world wide cities at night showing growth and changes in lighting technology from 2002 to 2025. https://t.co/fCYCdrCrtu
16.3K views · 425 likes
· 26 reposts · 11 replies
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Miami, Florida as seen from the ISS in 2025. This city has changed tremendously since my previous mission, replacing its yellow-orange sodium vapor lights with multi-colored LEDs. The city grid really pops! This LED takeover of city lighting is world wide. https://t.co/CbbaUH8LV2
4.2M views · 3.8K likes
· 293 reposts · 89 replies
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A free floating bundle of Russian rubber bands used on ISS. These are a long elastic piece that can easily be wrapped around an object and tied into a loop. Very useful on orbit to keep objects from floating away! When bundled together they remind me of a fungal colony. https://t
25.8K views · 1.3K likes
· 59 reposts · 14 replies
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Manicouagan crater of Quebec, seen from the @Space_Station in black & white imagery. The impact structure is hundreds of millions of years old and through great size is visible from space! https://t.co/lkLIcODSsW
12.1K views · 413 likes
· 36 reposts · 7 replies
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@astro_Pettit @BabakTafreshi @NatGeo Incredible
2.6K views · 91 likes
· 3 reposts · 2 replies
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@astro_Pettit @BabakTafreshi @NatGeo Great shot over the Capitol. I have loved checking out the satellites you can see in the ISS timelapses at https://t.co/cT3vCEr2Vr
I assume you set up a lot of those when you were on station!
425 views · 1 likes
· 0 reposts · 0 replies
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@astro_Pettit @BabakTafreshi @NatGeo Orbital View was made to visualize the Starlink satellite constellation, and others. I made it with Grok Build, along with many great apps.
Free below! https://t.co/G7YRwhZ4Vi
153 views · 2 likes
· 0 reposts · 2 replies
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A "train" of Starlink satellites consecutively flashing across the US Capitol, as seen from Earth and the ISS.
This was created in collaboration with @BabakTafreshi, as part of our From Above & Below photography series for National Geographic. https://t.co/O2QhX9LBHN
31.8K views · 804 likes
· 92 reposts · 16 replies
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@astro_Pettit Can be done on Earth as well. Real long-exposure (or multi-frame stacked long-exposure) shots from ground level.These are authentic astrophotography images taken on Earth with exposures typically ranging from 15–30 seconds (single frames) up to several minutes (or
98.6K views · 2K likes
· 65 reposts · 32 replies
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@astro_Pettit Different galaxy but here's a sample of one of my favorites. M51. Taken from my backyard, using a Canon 60D attached to a 10" SCT, all mounted to a custom fabricated diamond steel plate and pier which was found at the local metal scrap yard. 167x60s. https://t.co/lo
36.4K views · 627 likes
· 18 reposts · 11 replies
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@astro_Pettit @elonmusk Incredible .. great work Don
99.9K views · 2.2K likes
· 21 reposts · 17 replies
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I finally have all 1.2 million raw image files from my latest mission to ISS! Here is a sample of one of my favorite Milky Way photos, taken from the Cupola with Nikon Z9, Arri Zeiss 15mm lens, T1.8 with custom sidereal drive that cancelled out star motion relative to our orbit.
7.4M views · 106.5K likes
· 13.5K reposts · 1.5K replies
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@astro_Pettit Wow. Thank you for all that you do 🙏
2.5K views · 51 likes
· 0 reposts · 0 replies
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Phot detail posted here https://t.co/tytkfD9wYp
21.3K views · 106 likes
· 17 reposts · 6 replies
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Cosmic colors at sunrise; never get tired of seeing what the new day brings https://t.co/jLLzMIbOzi
548.5K views · 10.1K likes
· 1.5K reposts · 283 replies
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Rispetto ad account della stessa dimensione
19 post degli ultimi 90 giorni, accanto alla fascia di 100K–1M follower. arriva ben oltre il proprio pubblico, e quel pubblico reagisce.
Visualizzazioni mediane89 881questo account5 983mediana per 100K–1M
Copertura, %48.09%questo account1.49%mediana per 100K–1M
Interazione, %1.34%questo account0.93%mediana per 100K–1M
| Metrica | Questo account | Mediana per 100K–1M | Rapporto |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visualizzazioni mediane per post | 89 881 | 5 983 | 15.0× |
| Copertura (visualizzazioni ÷ follower) | 48.09% | 1.49% | 32.3× |
| Tasso di interazione | 1.34% | 0.93% | 1.44× |
Altri account di questa fascia → Confronta con un altro account → Come sono costruiti questi parametri →
Growth & engagement
How the posts we collected actually performed: views and reaction rate post by post, what the audience did with them, and where the follower count goes.
Views per post
25.8K2 Sep
4.2M4 Sep
16.3K
5.5K
4.2M7 Sep
143.8K
216.8K
134.1K
123.8K
109K
99.8K
99.7K
89.9K
48.7K
Last 14 collected posts, oldest on the left. The scale is logarithmic: one post can outrun the rest a hundred times over.
Engagement rate per post
5.47%2 Sep
0.10%4 Sep
2.86%
3.41%
0.88%7 Sep
1.34%
1.17%
1.23%
1.18%
1.00%
1.13%
1.23%
1.34%
3.35%
Reactions — likes, reposts, replies and quotes — divided by views. Median for 100K–1M accounts is 0.93%.
What the audience does
Likes77.4%174 332 in total
Reposts8.7%19 578 in total
Replies1.2%2 635 in total
Quotes0.7%1 675 in total
Bookmarks12.0%27 124 in total
Share of every reaction we collected for this account. Replies mean argument, reposts mean endorsement, bookmarks mean the post was worth keeping.
The follower curve appears once this account has two daily snapshots — we take one a day, and this one is on its first.
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