Incredible Image: Atlantis and ISS Transit the Sun

By Nancy Atkinson - May 21, 2010 at 7:00 AM UTC | Solar Astronomy
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Here are some incredible images of Atlantis and the International Space Station captured as it transit the Sun.

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French astrophotographer

Thierry Legault

has done it again. He captured a view of space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station crossing the face of the Sun on May 16, 2010 about 50 minutes before the shuttle docked with the space station. Legault took the image from Madrid, Spain at 13:28:55 UT. "Atlantis has just begun the 'R-bar pitch maneuver,'" Legault wrote on his

website,

"as the shuttle performs a backflip that exposes its heat-shield to the crew of the ISS that makes photographs of it; since its approach trajectory is between the

ISS

and the Earth, this means that we are seeing Atlantis essentially from above, with the payload bay door opened."

Since this may be Atlantis' last flight to space, the image is especially poignant.

See below for the full image, and make sure you go to

Legault's website and watch the movie

of how quickly the pair of spacecraft actually flew across the face of the Sun -- like the blink of an eye! It's amazing he was able to capture this incredible image at all, not to mention how clear and sharp the two spacecraft are in the photo, against the face of the otherwise spotless Sun. The shuttle's tail is even visible!

Legault said he used a Takahashi TOA-150 refractor (diameter 150mm, final focal 2500mm), Baader Herschel prism and Canon 5D Mark II camera, at an exposure of 1/8000s at 100 ISO, extracted from a series of 16 images (4 images/s) started 2 seconds before the predicted transit time.

[caption id="attachment_64778" align="aligncenter" width="580"]

Full image of the Sun, with transiting shuttle and ISS. Credit: Thierry Legault www.astrophoto.fr[/caption]

Take time to browse through Legault's impressive collection of spacecraft photography,

including an amazing 3-D movie of the ISS.

Nancy Atkinson

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