THE ISS AND SOLAR ECLIPSE!

Photograph by Thierry Legault


See that spec in the upper left quadrant? The one that looks like a TIE fighter from Star Wars? That’s the International Space Station spotted during yesterday night’s partial solar eclipse!

Photographer’s description: Image of the solar transit of the International Space Station (ISS), taken from the area of Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman on January 4th 2011 at 9:09 UT, during the partial solar eclipse. Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor on EM-10 mount, Canon 5D mark II. 1/5000s exposure at 100 iso. Transit forecast calculated by http://www.calsky.com (many thanks to Arnold Barmettler for his help).
Transit duration: 0.86s. ISS distance to observer: 510 km. Speed in orbit: 7.8km/s (28000 km/h or 17000 mph).

The image shows three planes in space: the Sun at 150 million km, the Moon at about 400000 km and the ISS at 500 km.


via Thierry Legault




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