The International Space Station is nowhere close to the moon, which is about 1,000 times farther away from Earth.
But a new snapshot from an accomplished space photographer makes it look as though the orbiting laboratory is skittering across the lunar surface, both sharply in focus.
The new image, taken on Feb. 5 by Andrew James McCarthy, frames the space station with Shackleton Crater, a famous landmark on the moon near its south pole. The site is a potential future landing spot for NASA astronauts.
Many photos McCarthy has taken of the space station in the past show the ship as a silhouette in Earth's shadow. This time he caught it in direct sunlight, in conjunction with the so-called lunar terminator. That line, also sometimes referred to as the twilight zone, separates the lit and dark side of the moon.
"This might be my new favorite," he told Mashable. "What I love about this one is there's actually dimension to the ISS here because it's illuminated. I've shot it illuminated before, but not in this high resolution."
The arresting image showcases the hard geometric lines of the spacecraft, set against the organic undulations of the moon, mottled with craters and long dramatic shadows.
Getting the shot, which has drawn a few cynics on the internet, wasn't as easy as the click of a button. It required painstaking planning, overcoming several equipment failures, a ride off the beaten path, thousands of frames, and impeccable timing: The space station, spanning the length of an American football field with end zones, flies at about 17,000 mph, or five miles per second. The whole event could have been missed in the blink of an eye.
McCarthy, a former manager for a tech startup, pursued astrophotography after losing his job in a layoff before the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the years, he's developed his acumen, shooting all types of astronomical phenomena. He now makes a living off high-definition pictures that can be blown up into giant prints.
Earlier this month, McCarthy discovered there would be two back-to-back days of space station transits that would make good photo opportunities. Not only were they relatively close, but telemetry apps indicated the space station would appear to have a large angular size, due to its position above the horizon.
His first attempt on Feb. 4 took him to Yuma, Arizona. After getting permission from a business owner, he set up his gear in a private parking lot. The equipment included 14-inch and 11-inch telescopes, a couple of cameras, cell phones, and a Canon R5 with a 1,000-millimeter telephoto lens.
Seconds before the transit, one of McCarthy's laptops quit, and the 14-inch Dobsonian telescope didn't work.
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In astrophotography, getting the shot is sometimes an odds game, so he resolved to try again the next day. This time the projected path for the transit took him to a remote area about 35 miles east of the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
There was nothing in the path but a dirt road off Highway 60, which seemed to be public. Little did he know the road would be so narrow, the prickly cholla cacti would scrape at both sides of his car.
McCarthy pulled over in a small clearing as far as he could. The ground was uneven, so he wedged rocks under his telescopes to keep them level. Then he set up a Starlink to connect to high-speed internet.
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The wind whipped, and the sun shone in his eyes. McCarthy was unflapped.
"I've definitely shot in worse locations," he said.
McCarthy's laptop crashed again and nearly botched the session. He made the risky decision to swap out computers, just in the nick of time. The photo's exposure was 1/5,000th of a second, he said.
Afterward, McCarthy kept taking pictures to fill in the rest of the moon at the same focal length. Later, he stitched them together to form a mosaic. Each panel is composed of about 2,000 stacked photos. Because the raw image was taken in black and white, a second camera, the Canon R5, captured color.
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In this age of artificial intelligence and image generators, the public doesn't always believe such extraordinary photos are real. McCarthy spends a lot of time on social media and his website, showing the "receipts" of his work. He posts the original raw image, along with how it looked in motion — harder evidence to fake.
It convinces some. Others remain skeptical.
"So much of astrophotography is about sharing what's invisible — what's so faint, you can't even see it with your eyes," he said.
