October 1, 2012 at 5:10 pm

Picture of the Day: An Airplane Crosses the Moon

by twistedsifter

 

AN AIRPLANE CROSSES THE MOON

 

airplane passing the mooon perfect timing Picture of the Day: An Airplane Crosses the Moon

Photograph by Chris Thomas

 

 
In this perfectly timed photograph by Chris Thomas, we see an airplane passing directly in front of the Earth’s moon. Taken back in 2010, Chris posted the amazing capture to Ice in Space, an Australian website dedicated to amateur astronomy. Thomas said of the shot:

“Today, I achieved something I have wanted to do for a considerable length of time. A plane crossing the moon. Everyday this Qantas Dash 8 Q 400 flies over our country property, always at 5.30pm, without fail. I have watched it fly ‘through’ the moon a few times.
 
Today, the moon was at the ‘right’ phase, approx in line with the planes flight path. So I set up gear (I have done this drill quite a few times!), I saw the plane along way of and thought ‘no-its not going to hit’, I stayed beside scope just in case, then as it got closer, I could see “it was going to line up!”
 
My palm started to sweet ‘buck fever’, I only want to pull the trigger when I knew the plane was in the centre of the moon. I got my wish! Technical details: Vixen 103 ED refractor on Vixen GP, mount, guiding by Vixen SS2K, camera 450D at 250 sec 200 iso, and a nerve of steel!” – Source: Ice in Space

To see more pictures of the setup used, be sure to head to the original thread on Ice in Space.