I have a particular interest in satellite transits across the solar/lunar surfaces due to the opportunity they present the lucky observer to discern greater physical detail and structure as a result of their silhouette against the bright background of the sun and/or moon; the ability to restrict the satellite's location in the daytime or evening sky to an area measuring 0.5°x0.5° with little or no effort; it permits for the bypassing of satellite tracking which itself is a challenge due the very short period transits are visible during a particular overhead pass; and the difficulty in obtaining accurate and timely orbital elements and TLE's. As this "search and identify" project has literally become a DAILY ritual, I expect this web page to be updated constantly with more and more images of the very unique phenomena of satellite transits across the solar and/or lunar disks.

Note: The capture of a solar transit by the International Space Station was an incessant chase for 3-4 years and until July 28, 2005 when the ISS (with STS-114) was finally captured transiting against the Sun and which included the space shuttle Discovery. Approximately nine months later, the ISS was also caught transiting the rising moon (click here) albeit at a very low altitude. My best ISS transit capture occurred in 2018 when the ISS was at a range of 441.6 km away transiting the Sun once again whereas in 2010 I was able to also capture the ISS during the day transiting Jupiter at a range of 439.5 km as well as Mars at a range of 565.9 km.

A stunning capture of the ISS transiting the Moon was captured 30 days earlier while traveling over the northernmost edge of Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Tranquility) and continuing towards the Apennine Mountain region and the landing area of Apollo 15 and, finally, passing just to the west of the bright impact crater Aristarchus and at the easternmost edge of Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) (see here). The Moon was approximately one day past full and was characterized with a phase of 98.74%, a magnitude of -12.4 and an apparent diameter of 33.72 arc-minutes while lying at a distance of 358,795 km away and which was very close to the minimum (perigee) distance the Moon can attain during its elliptical orbit around Earth (see here).

The result below but now involving the Sun has the ISS transiting the solar disk for 0.74 seconds while lying at a range of 551.4 km. The Sun has an angular diameter of 31.95 arc-minutes with Earth lying 149,790,972 km away and which represents the midpoint between perihelion and aphelion (see here).

Note: For a complete set of images captured so far involving satellite transits of both the Sun and Moon, click here.