A rare solar eclipse photo

 
Image Credit & Copyright: Thierry Legault

4^th of January 2011 was the day of the first partial solar eclipse of the year 2011. For many this was just an ordinary eclipse and most of the astronomy lovers shot “ordinary” photos of the eclipse from around the world. But not Thierry Legault, a professional photographer, who happened to be in Muscat on that day.

Instead of shooting an “ordinary” photo, he decided to shoot two eclipses simultaneously. And this is how it came about. Both the moon and the International Space Station can be visibly seen in this rare and professionally composed photo. This photo shot at 1/5000^th second exposure captured earth’s two largest satellites against the bright yellow solar disc.

At the time of the shoot out, the space station, clearly visible a little towards the left from the sun centre, was about 500 kilometers from the earth. And the space station just took a second to appear and then disappear. It was the photographer’s precise calculation and moment to capture this rare incidence that no other photographer had perhaps even dared.  

Photo source: NASA