Incredible photos of the moment a rocket passed in front of the Moon have been captured by an astrophotographer from Philadelphia .
Steve Rice snapped the pictures of a life as the Antares rocket , carrying the Cygnus NG-14 ballistic capsule , flew in front of the Moon on its way to the International Space Station ( ISS ) on October 2 .
launch from Wallops Island , Virginia , Northrop Grumman ’s Antares rocket was carrying the Cygnus loading ballistic capsule and delivering , among other thing , NASA ’s new place toiletto the cosmonaut aboard the ISS .
Rice charm the spectacular image at 9.16 pm , or so 22 seconds after liftoff at about 5.5 kilometre ( 3.4 miles ) from the launch area , according to a postal service he shared on Instagram .
Using the rocket launching and orbital flight flight simulatorFlight Clubto work out exactly where to place himself , Rice reckon a location on the side of a road overlooking the launching that put the skyrocket right in his path , backlit by the Moon , 22 second after the schedule launch time . Using a tripod and 300 - millimeter telephotograph lens , he held down the shutter when he saw the light of the launch and implore he ’d get some frames of the rocket pass across the Moon , he toldBusiness Insiderin an interview .
Incredibly , he managed to capture 4k footage simultaneously , which shows the shockwaves exhale from the locomotive engine and the rocket ’s exhaust plume as it passed in front of our satellite . " That crunch sound you hear is the direct resultant of those shockwaves , " Rice compose under the video he shared on hisYouTube channel .
Capturing transiting space vehicle – or planets – is a plot of skill and luck . Both the fomite and the celestial body are moving and you have to take into thoughtfulness the sizing of both , too . append in geography and weather , the latter of which already affected the Antares launching , which had been rescheduled from its original launch the daytime before with just 18 secondment before liftoff . fortuitously , Rice had a nearly full waning Moon , which well agree the 42.5 - m ( 139 - foot ) rocket at heart .
The ISS has been catch in some stunning pic of ittransitting the Moonand , incredibly , theSun during 2017 ’s entire solar occultation . This calendar month , however , seems to be proving peculiarly right for striking rocket launch transit exposure , after an initial worry " Scrubtober " was cursed following multiple launching reschedules , including SpaceX ’s Starlink satellites .
However , SpaceX finally launched its latest batch of 60 satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on October 6 , at 7.29 am , providing a dramatic sunrise as a backdrop .
With another Starlink satellite batch scheduled for launch sometime in late October and Blue Origin ’s rescheduled New Shephard NS-13 missionary work also due for launch ( potentially coinciding with Halloween ’s rarefied Blue Full Moon ) , perhaps we ’ll be golden enough for some more striking shot .
