The International Space Station (ISS) crosses the face of the nearly full moon in a gorgeous composite image snapped by astrophotographer Alexander Krivenyshev.
Krivenyshev, president of WorldTimeZone.com, took the pictures comprising the composite from Edgewater, New Jersey, on Wednesday night (Oct. 4), a day before the Harvest Moon took full effect. [The Moon: 10 Surprising Facts]
The ISS was silhouetted against the lunar disk for a mere 0.86 seconds Wednesday night, according to Krivenyshev, who has also captured the station transiting the face of the sun.
Related: Spot the International Space Station Location with New NASA Tool
The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest on the calendar to the beginning of autumn; it therefore usually comes in September. (The autumnal equinox occurs between Sept. 21 and Sept. 24, depending on the year.) Before Thursday (Oct. 5), there hadn't been an October Harvest Moon since 2009, according to Space.com skywatching columnist Joe Rao.
Six crewmembers currently live aboard the $100 billion ISS, which zips around Earth at an average altitude of 250 miles (400 kilometers). They are NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba; cosmonauts Sergey Ryazansky and Alexander Misurkin; and the European Space Agency's Paolo Nespoli.
Editor's note: If you have an amazing photo of the full moon or any other night-sky sight that you'd like to share with us and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, send images and comments to: spacephotos@space.com.
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