Incredible Photo: Chinese Space Station Silhouetted against the Sun

French astrophotographer Thierry Legault had perfect timing. He captured an image of the Chinese space station Tiangong-1 crossing the path of the sun. At Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait writes:

In this picture, you can see the station silhouetted against the Sun’s face; it’s the H-shaped object between the sunspots. Right now, the Shenzou-10 spacecraft is docked to Tiangong-1; each is one half of the H.

Perspective is funny; the two spacecraft together are about 20 meters across but don’t look much smaller than the sunspots … which are as large as our entire planet! But, of course, they’re a wee bit farther away. Like, 500,000 times farther.

Link -via Bad Astronomy