Astrophoto: Sunspot Flyover

By Nancy Atkinson - September 06, 2013 02:49 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy

Watch out! That plane is heading straight for a sunspot! Astrophotographer Sebastien Lebrigand was taking some detailed images of the Sun and when something zoomed into his field of view, a 737 airplane. He was about 70 km outside of Paris France when he took this image, using a CANON EOS 500D camera and a 114 mm refractor telescope with a 1200mm focal length. Exposure: 1 / 3200s in 100 iso. The image was taken on September 5, 2013.

Nice catch!

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com