A photographer was able to capture the silhouette of the International Space Station (ISS) as it swiftly passed the full moon. While the majority are searching the sky for Venus and Jupiter on the same fateful night, the camera of Dylan O'Donnell was focused on another part of the sky and successfully captured the beautiful photograph.
Although he was also out for the much-anticipated dance of planets Jupiter and Venus, as evidenced by his telescope set up toward the western sky, he was also very much aware that the ISS will cross the moon. "The CalSky website sends me alerts for potential flyovers, for which I've been waiting a long time -- about 12 months," states O'Donnell in his blog. "I got one this week and this was adjusted by 15 seconds by the time of the 'occultation'." So, he focused his telescope as directed in the alerts and shoot fast, successive shots during the specified second of time. He was able to capture the ISS as it passed the disc.
According to O'Donnell, he used a Canon 70D, clipped to a Celestron 9.25″ telescope (2300mm / f10), ISO 800 and 1/1650th of a second shutter speed. He shoot on burst mode during that second he knew that the space station would cross the moon. He then hoped for the best and when he reviewed it later, he was able to deliver. "If you think that it might be a case of sitting there with your camera and a clock, with one hand on the shutter release, you'd be absolutely correct!" The approximate time for the ISS to pass by the moon is 0.33 seconds. O'Donnell took another second of shots on each side of the station's lunar transit, enhanced the photo, particularly increasing the saturation to emphasize the specifications of the moon's surface vividly.
O'Donnell carefully planned and waited for a year to finally get this less-than-a-second opportunity. The ISS frequently exhibits flyovers but because there's a lot of sky along the way, the chance for it to directly line along the full moon is a scarce happening. People without powerful telescopes or digital devices may still get a glimpse of the ISS as it presents itself as a bright white dot in the sky. The ISS measures roughly about the size of a football field and is the residence of six astronauts from different space agencies.
This is not the first time that O'Donnell was able to capture the ISS along the moon. He said the first time he was able to have the same photograph was last year; however, the photo was not clear and the quality was poor. He did see it pass across the moon so swiftly but its image on film looked like a smudge so he considered it a bit of a failure.
