There are times when astronomy amateurs stumble into the photo of a lifetime. For Pixeltop forum member labsmansid, that moment happened yesterday. He worried all morning that he may not even get the opportunity due to the massive cloud cover in his area. Luck was with him, though, when the skies cleared up less than a half hour prior to the time that the International Space Station was scheduled to pass between his location and the Sun.

Some people are comparing this photo to one found on the Bad Astronomy blog. labsmansid takes that as a compliment, and states that photos like this are what got him interested in this hobby of his to begin with.

According to the photographer, the entire event lasted less than a second. To capture this breathtaking moment, he “was using a long telephoto lens with a 2X teleconvertor attached to my Canon 40D camera. The lens front was covered with a special solar filter designed for photographic, rather than visual, use. It lets more light through for higher shutter speeds. In this case, I shot at 1/8000th shutter speed and f/11 at 200ISO.”

A few skeptics are trying to claim that it is all a hoax. If that is true, then you have to give him credit for his ingenuity and creativity. I highly doubt this photo is the result of a “spot on the lens” as one person said. What are the odds that a smudge would look exactly the same as the ISS?

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s the International Space Station?

If you’ve always wanted to take macro shots with your iPhone 3G, you want the Griffin Clarifi. Here’s the original upload for best comparison purposes.

Griffin Clarifi Macro Lens for iPhone Camera