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Have astronauts in space suits ever taken selfies?

Were selfie sticks used?

If not, how was this feat accomplished?

uhoh
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1 Answers1

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Several space selfies were made and chances are you already know the very first one Buzz Aldrin took of himself during Gemini 12.

Buzz Aldrin selfie during Gemini 12

The cameras used are large-ish but imagine even holding a shoe box in front of you with thick gloves on: you're still able to point it at yourself in a distance suitable to make a photograph of yourself, provided the lens' focal length/field of view allows to capture enough of your face.

At least some of the cameras just look like a normal DSLR in a special casing and can be seen in the helmet reflections like this one:

Luca Parmitano selfie

There is a nice gallery of space selfies at Wikimedia.

DarkDust
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  • Wow, I didn't know about any of these, or that there was a selfie page. I'd assumed that astronaut cameras were set up to work only in the most conventional point and shoot configuration. – uhoh Apr 06 '19 at 08:05
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    I've always assumed that selfies had to be done with smartphones, because the term includes a pun on the beginning of the word "cellphone". But I've checked a number of dictionaries and they just say that they're typically taken with a hand-held digital camera. – Barmar Apr 06 '19 at 19:00
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    It's too bad the Apollo 12 crew couldn't get their smuggled self-timer to work. The planned portrait of the two of them standing next to Surveyor III could well have beaten Armstrong's portrait of Aldrin as "most-reproduced". – Mark Apr 06 '19 at 19:41
  • The Apollo astronauts used a custom Hasselblad 500 EL. – chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic- Apr 07 '19 at 01:17
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    @Barmar That only works in American English. Otherwise they're called "mobile phones". "self" plus a suffix "-ie" works in all varieties of English. – CJ Dennis Apr 07 '19 at 06:22
  • @CJDennis I guess they should be called "phonies" in other dialects :) – Barmar Apr 08 '19 at 06:11
  • @DarkDust the question Why ISS Astronauts have red stripes? asks why stripes are red. Photos there and at How do ISS astronauts “get their stripes”? and answers therein all show red stripes. But does your last image show a green stripe? If so, you may be able to add information on one or both of those. – uhoh Apr 08 '19 at 14:19
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    @uhoh: Good catch! But that's a part of the Italian flag on his shoulder ^_^ – DarkDust Apr 08 '19 at 14:29
  • @DarkDust Ah, so it is! I see, the next color (behind the green) is white, and easy to miss against the white of the space suit. update: There it is! https://i.stack.imgur.com/5gBab.jpg – uhoh Apr 08 '19 at 14:41