enthalpy

Thursday, January 06, 2011


It's not every day you can take a picture of a partial solar eclipse with the International Space Station flying between you and the sun.
What you're seeing here is a double eclipse; the moon and the ISS simultaneously passing between the Earth and the sun. Also in the shot are groups of sunspots bubbling on the solar photosphere.

While the picture alone is one to remember, it's the sheer skill of the photographer that made this possible. The ISS transited the sun in less than a second (0.86 seconds to be precise), so not only did Legault have to be in the right place to see the ISS dash in front of the sun, his timing needed to be perfect.
Well, it's a spectacular photograph, but your math doesn't work out. A fellow nerd pointed out to me today (after sending me this link) that the sun subtends about half a degree of the sky, and the ISS completes 360ยบ (one orbit) in about 90 minutes, so the ISS was in front of it for about 7.5 seconds, not 0.86 seconds.

Still, a great picture.



Home