The International Space Station solar eclipse photo bomb is celestial magic

By now, we’ve seen so many breathtaking photos from Monday’s cosmic event shared online, and we don’t expect eclipse frenzy to die down anytime soon. That’s because even more glorious images continue to surface, like this incredible video of the International Space Station passing through the solar eclipse.

Yes, while we were all glaring up at the heavens through our solar eclipse glasses (or trusty cereal box viewers), the ISS crew had what was arguably the best seat in the house from an orbit 200-plus miles above Earth.

Shortly after the alignment of the three heavenly bodies on August 21, NASA shared a video of the silhouetted ISS transiting the sun. Needless to say, it’s absolutely magical.

As Business Insider reports, NASA photo editor Joel Kowsky used a high-speed camera, recording at 1,500 frames per second to capture the solar eclipse video near Banner, Wyoming. He also used a standard camera to capture another image of the ISS, which looks like a tiny H-shaped object. At the time, the spacecraft moved past the sun at approximately five miles per second.

Currently, the ISS serves as a temporary home to six astronauts: Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryazanskiy and Fyodor Yurchikhin; the European Space Agency’s Paolo Nespoli; and NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Jack Fischer, and Peggy Whitson, who recently broke another record by becoming the American with the most cumulative days in space.

Here’s the astronauts’ view of the solar eclipse from the space station:

Ah-mazing. We nominate this stunning image for space photo of the year!