The ISS, however, is moving too fast to make this feasible. 'The ISS is only visible during dusk or dawn since it has to be illuminated by the sun, but the sky has to be dark enough,' he tells CNET.Īstrophotographers often use motorized telescope mounts that automatically adjust for the rotation of the Earth when imaging far-off objects like planets and nebulae. His eye, equipment and timing had to all be perfectly in sync. Klemmer used a $2,700 (about £1,900, AU$3,500) Celestron telescope to help capture the photo. Astronaut photographs a single airplane from space.Aurora seen from the space station is a magic veil over Earth.Stunning supermoon close-up taken with iPhone.It takes a mere 90 minutes to orbit the planet.

According to NASA, it travels at about 17,500 mph (about 28,000 km/h). The ISS is particularly challenging because it moves very quickly across the sky, giving photographers only a few brief moments to get a good shot. Klemmer's image shows an impressive amount of detail, right down to the individual photovoltaic arrays extending out in parallel lines. In the right conditions and with the right timing, anyone can see the space station from Earth with the naked eye, but it looks like a small bright dot moving quickly across the night sky. The proof is in an extraordinary photo he took Monday in the brief moments the International Space Station passed in orbit far above him. Klemmer is an amateur astrophotographer who is far along in his craft. When Thomas Klemmer stands in his backyard in Germany and takes a picture, it turns out marvelous. If I stand in my backyard at night with a camera and take a picture of the sky, it will turn out as a blurry, amorphous mess.

International space station telescope