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If you every want to see the International Space Station (ISS) with your own eyes, you can sign up for alerts at SpotTheStation.nasa.gov. About 12 hours before a visible passing, you’ll get a text or email telling you what time and which direction to look.

A couple weeks ago I set my alarm to watch the ISS pass overhead. Turns out it was heading a bit towards the moon. I started to panic! Not that I think it was about to crash into the moon, of course! But I’ve always wanted to capture a lunar transit and I didn’t have my good camera out for this.

So at the last second I pulled out my phone and got the stress-induced-phone-bobbling handheld video you see here in this GIF. Not too shabby for a quick smartphone shot.

I was stoked! It passed right across the moon in my own back yard. But I was so bummed that I didn’t get it with my new Sony A7S III mounted on my telescope with that new adapter I got. I’ll just blame not planning this out on the state of the world.

So that night I jumped on the ISS Transit Finder and searched for all the nearby lunar and solar ISS transits and put them on my calendar. The next transit event that I could make was on Monday, February 21st, 2022 at exactly 12:19:51.87 PM, which happens to be President’s Day, and a holiday!

Fast forward to “transit day” and I pack up my Sony A7S III, my 200mm lens, 2x teleconverter and tripod. Andrea, our little dog J.T. and I make an adventure out of it and drive 45 minutes from Livermore to a specific spot just a mile east of Interstate 5 near Lodi, CA.

I could either take a series of continuous photos at 5 frames per second (FPS), or I could take video at 4K at 120 FPS. Since it took .88 of a second for the station to cross the sun, it was a no-braining to shoot this in video.

It’s very important that you use a proper solar filter when shooting the sun. I use the Kenko PRO ND100000 Solar Filter which cuts the light down by 16 3/5 stops. Use a solar filter or you risk melting your sensor or eye balls.

Now that the pandemic is slowly winding down, it was great to get out to the city again to snap some photos of kick-ass jets zooming over the San Francisco Bay.

Click the thumbnails to see the show! Enjoy!

Click the first image to start the slide show. Enjoy!