International Space Station Solar Transit, July 31

By Fritz Olenberger

There was another local solar transit of the International Space Station on Friday at 3:02 p.m., two days before NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley departed the ISS and returned to earth in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship.

I captured the transit from the parking lot of the Ritz-Carlton Bacara, a location where the transit was predicted to be centered on the sun. This image is a composite of frame grabs (every other frame) from a 4K video shot at 30 frames per second, at a shutter speed of 1/2000 sec.  I shot the video with a Canon 5D Mk IV and 600mm lens with a solar filter.

The transit lasted about 0.7 seconds.

The ISS orbits the earth every 92 minutes, or just over 15 orbits per day.  It travels at a speed of 17,100 miles per hour, at an altitude of 254 miles.  It is slightly larger than a football field, and weighs 925,335 pounds.