Capturing footage of the International Space Station (ISS) hurtling through space at nearly 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h) is no easy feat, but French astrophotographer Thierry Legault has pulled it off yet again.
In his latest stunning snapshot, taken on Friday (June 9), Legault photo iss It skips three groups of sunspots, the largest of which is large enough to swallow them up Land all. The entire solar transit lasted just 0.75 seconds.
Additionally, Legault captured this footage while two NASA astronauts, Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, were executing Spacewalk to install a New solar array outside the station.
Related: How to watch the sun safely (and what to look for)
“Oops, I did it again… better!” Legault’s books Facebook sharehaving previously captured the International Space Station transit the sun And on a giant sunspot June 6th.
Legault drove six hours from his home to the Netherlands, where he watched the transit happen just an hour after the start of the spacewalk.
This time, the International Space Station passed in front of 3 sunspots In a split second! ”
The International Space Station orbits Earth every 90 minutes, and travels about the distance from Earth to Earth the moon And back again in just one day.
Although the two targets may appear close together in Legault’s shots, unlike Icarus, the International Space Station remains a safe distance from the sun. The International Space Station orbits about 250 miles (402 kilometers) above Earth, but the Sun is on average about 300,000 times farther from us, at a distance of 93 million miles (150 million kilometers).
The secret behind capturing such a special moment? Accurate planning and clear skies!
Equipment used:
CFF200 apo refractor, Baader Herschel wedge, Olympus OM-1, Emmanuel Rietsch GPS actuator
“Using real-time images of the Sun, I estimated the position of major sunspot groups toward vertical and horizontal directions (which depend on time and location),” Legault told Space.com in an email.
I compared it to the planned route www.transit-finder.comand I tried to position myself on the opposite crossing line (which was not the center of the crossing’s vision path), “Legault continued.
According to Legault, all single images are single shots at 1/32,000 second. It does not capture ISS transits using stacking or aggregations.
If you want to try taking pictures of the orbital outpost, we have it How to photograph the International Space Station A guide may help, and to aid your planning efforts, check out How to see and track the International Space Station Guide.
Our best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography can also help you prepare for your next skywatching spectacle.
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