The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth 16 times every day, and those with the right equipment at home could even see it pass overhead. Occasionally, the space laboratory with astronauts on board will quickly move across the surface of the Sun, providing a unique opportunity for photographers to capture it.
Photographer Andrew McCarthy has captured a stunning image of the International Space Station as it passes by the sun. The photograph required an extensive amount of effort, as it took 12 hours, three telescopes, and thousands of smaller images to create. The sun in the picture appears to be increasingly active, and viewers are encouraged to search for the space station in the image.
International Space Station Captured Passing by the Sun in a Stunning New Image
ISS Zips Across the Sun
McCarthy set up his equipment on the side of the road on a day when the temperature was at 100 degrees, Science Alert reported. The telescopes he used had a small field of view to capture more details, so he had to take several snapshots of each part of the solar surface to be able to stitch them together into a mosaic for the final photo.
Here I hope this helps pic.twitter.com/A6qHcAKETc
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) May 4, 2023
He used the sunspots as a visual cue to locate the space station as it passed in front of them. McCarthy told Insider that he had plotted his Earth position based on the transit of the ISS over a particular sunspot, which helped him to get both the sunspot and the ISS in his field of view.
McCarthy wanted to capture the fiery drama of the Sun's chromosphere, the thin layer of plasma between the photosphere and the outermost layer of the atmosphere, the corona. The chromosphere's plasma reaches temperatures up to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, where hydrogen emits a reddish light.
The space station showed up in visible light, and McCarthy used three telescopes, one to capture the chromosphere's "hydrogen alpha" emissions and two to capture optical light to resolve the ISS. His telescopes snapped around 230 images per second to get the clearest possible snapshot of the big satellite.
On his way back, one of McCarthy's tires blew out. McCarthy said he did not like how the ISS blended in the final shot, and he plans to take another shot to do better as an artist in framing the final photo.
READ ALSO: Astronaut Crisotoforetti Captured a "Space Angel" Photo from ISS
The Sun Is Getting More Active
Solar activity is predicted to increase due to the solar cycle 25. Space.com reported that active regions of the Sun, which is where the magnetic fields of the star are disturbed, were spotted and they are associated with explosive solar storms like solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
As the Sun approaches the solar maximum, which is the peak of activity in the solar cycle, these active regions become more prevalent, and they are marked by dark sunspots.
Solar cycle 25 has been more active than the preceding solar cycle 24, which was relatively subdued. Solar activity, including the number of sunspots and solar flares, has been on the rise since December 2019.
As the Sun moves toward the next solar maximum in 2024, the number of active regions will increase, and the polarity of the star will reverse. Solar activity is set to remain high over the coming weeks as two large active regions of the sun turn to face Earth.
RELATED ARTICLE: International Space Station Can Be Visibly Seen Soon: Here's How and When to Spot It!
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