Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: This month,bright planet Saturn rises in evening skies,its rings oriented nearly edge-on when viewed from planet Earth.And in the early morning hours on July 6,it posed very briefly with theInternational Space Stationwhen viewed from a location in Federal Way,Washington, USA.This well-planned image, a stack of video frames,captures their momentary conjunction in the same telescopicfield of view.With the ISS inlow Earth orbit,space station and gas giant planetwere separated by almost 1.4 billion kilometers.Their apparent sizes are comparable but theISS was much brighterthan Saturn and the ringed planet's brightness has beenincreased for visibility inthe stacked image.Precise timing and an exact location were needed tocapturethe ISS/Saturn conjunction.