Last Saturday, Perseiden storms were predicted for that upcoming night so I planned to go out shooting with a friend. The sky in the evening was crystal clear so it was a perfect opportunity. This actually does not happen a lot in our country, the Netherlands. We have a lot of light pollution.
That night, I decided I wanted to make some selfies with Milky Way, meaning me and my friend standing in front of it. Photographs like this just show how tiny we really are as earthlings. When I was shooting my friend, who was standing on top of a hill in front of the Milky Way, I noticed something in the sky. This was definitely no meteor because it was moving much slower. It faded out after a few seconds and when I checked the shot I took in my view finder I saw the white stripe. This did not look like an airplane. I took many of these shots before and airplanes usually have some color, and are way uglier and more dominating as stripes. So at first, I thought it was a bright meteor or some kind of satellite.
When I came home, after processing the image I started to post the image to a local astronomy forum. These guys have helped me before and obviously, they helped me again. After some measuring and checking the exact time of the photo, (which was 23:51:16 btw) they determined this had to be the ISS (international space station). Obviously I was very excited about this!
Some people have been telling me I'm not telling the truth about that this was accidental. I can not prove anything, and these people just have to take my word for it. If I planned this shot I would have simply said I did. It doesn't change the photo. Also, a lot of media outlets are labelling this as a selfie. Technically this is not entirely correct. I was taking the photo of my friend at the moment, so it really is a portrait (with the ISS photobombing it)!
More info: albertdros.com
ISS Photobomb!
Sony A7II, Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens at f2.8 (wide open) | ISO 3200 | exposure time 20 seconds
Master Of The Galaxy
Galaxy Duo
