Italian photographer has captured a spectacular image of the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) passing in front of the Sun, an event which takes place in 0.81 seconds.
''It's taken me two years to get this shot,'' said Riccardo Di Nasso, who snapped the picture from the banks of Lake Massaciuccoli, near Pisa.
''My first problem was figuring out exactly when and where the ISS would pass over me and then when it would pass with the Sun behind it,'' Di Nasso explained.
''Last year I was able to see it happen but that moment was so quick that my camera couldn't capture it in time,'' he added.
Di Nasso's quest was also hindered by weather conditions because ''visibility had to be absolutely perfect''.
Each time he attempted to capture the ISS in front of the Sun, Di Nasso had to first make a series of calculations, including accounting for the changing weight of the ISS.
''Even a minimum change or shift in weight can have an effect on its orbit, changes which on Earth correspond to hundreds of meters,'' Di Nasso explained.
The Italian photographer said his effort were recently made even more complicated with the arrival of the Atlantic Space Shuttle with its Columbus laboratory payload which was then attached to the ISS along with several other modules.
