Let's say you find yourself as a tourist in space, and you want to take snaps for the folks back home. "My biggest tip is to take lots of pictures," says McArthur. "That was my general rule of thumb." He had a different reason, though: "Even if I didn't have any idea what it was, people on the ground could figure out anything pretty quickly."
One more tip: To pick up background stars you'll need to use a shutter speed of anywhere from one to 30 seconds. With your spacecraft constantly in motion, however, everything else will show up blurred. So it may be tough convincing Flat Earth Society skeptics that you weren't inside some secret anti-gravity simulator near Area 51.
LINKS
Cameras Used on the ISS and Shuttle Missions by NASA Astronauts to Photograph Earth
Metadata: Film Types and Electronic Imaging Formats Used by NASA Astronauts to Photograph Earth
Keep up with the latest NASA news at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov.