![On Sunday I traveled to the middle of the Sonoran desert to capture the international space station transiting the sun while it was flaring. Earth added for scale. [OC]](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/5x80cooazd8f1-709x1536.jpeg "On Sunday I traveled to the middle of the Sonoran desert to capture the international space station transiting the sun while it was flaring. Earth added for scale. [OC]")
Solar transits like this are tricky for me since I live in Arizona. The sun is only high enough for a "good” one during the summer- when temps are always extremely high. According to the thermometer in my car it was 121°F outside when I got this shot. To mitigate the effects of the heat, I brought ice packs and thermoelectric coolers to help keep the telescopes and computers from overheating.
I captured this using multiple telescopes designed to safely filter out the sun's light while allowing the chromosphere, the details in the atmosphere, to come through. This shot is also a tight crop of the whole photo. You can see the uncropped version of it showing the scale of the iss against the sun, raw photos, and a video showing the telescopes on my Instagram I’ll link in the comments.
https://i.redd.it/5x80cooazd8f1.jpeg
13 Comments
Solar transits like this are tricky for me since I live in Arizona. The sun is only high enough for a “good
one during the summer- when temps are always extremely high. According to the thermometer in my car it was 121°F outside when I got this shot. To mitigate the effects of the heat, I brought ice packs and thermoelectric coolers to help keep the telescopes and computers from overheating.
I captured this using multiple telescopes designed to safely filter out the sun’s light while allowing the chromosphere, the details in the atmosphere, to come through. This shot is also a tight crop of the whole photo. You can see the uncropped version of it showing the scale of the ISS against the full sun, raw photos, and a video showing the behind the scenes and live view during capture [on my insta](https://www.instagram.com/cosmic_background/profilecard/?igsh=MXBhZHIyeGdmcXRrYQ==).
Az native here, I love this shot. Perfectly represents Arizona’s heat while capturing the beauty as well
Kardashev Dreams as it “represents the humble beginnings as our civilization grows”. Nice work!
I had no idea the ISS was so much bigger than Earth! Who’s orbiting who MFer?!?!
Unreal. I’d love to see a high res version of this without the earth for scale.
Holy shit, I didn’t know the ISS was that much bigger than Earth!!
wdym earth added for scale? how far away did you make it? the center of the sun? (beautiful shot btw)
Badass picture but the esrth for scale is really confusing
Just curious how much time it takes the ISS to transit the solar disk.
I presume that’s the size of earth if it were on the surface of the sun, right?
Great shot!
Pity that your telescope only supports a half-vertical format.
I assume that’s Earth *on the surface of the sun* “for scale”?
Amazing picture ! Remove the added Earth though .