On September 6, the International Space Station (ISS) passed in front of the sun. NASA photographer Bill Ingalls captured the moment in five separate photographs, showing the station and how it moved against the background of our solar system's largest star.
NASA put those images together in a gorgeous composite image, which shows the ISS' path, moving five miles per second, as it transited the sun.
Ingalls took the photos from Shenandoah National Park in Front Royal, Va. Ingalls had to time his work just right so that he could capture the fast-moving ISS at just the right moment against the background of the sun.
As you can see from this beautiful photo, Ingalls does good work as NASA's Senior Contract Photographer.
Last month, Ingalls took a beautiful shot of the ISS transiting the moon.
Amateurs can try their luck at capturing photos of the ISS by using NASA's Spot The Station website, which lets skygazers know when the ISS is visible in their part of the sky. The site also lets those interested in seeing the ISS sign up for alerts so they'll know when they need to look up.
"The space station looks like a fast-moving plane in the sky, but it is dozens of times higher than any airplane and traveling thousands of miles an hour faster," writes NASA on the Spot The Station website. "It is bright enough that it can even be seen from the middle of a city!"
Of course, amateur photographers wanting to capture photos like these probably need the right equipment, particularly a solar filter for photographing the sun. However, the good news is that anyone can actually see the ISS on a particular night, as long as weather conditions are clear.
