I was pretty excited to wake up at 2:45 am last Saturday morning and drive from our camping spot about two miles up the dirt road to Upper Barker Reservoir in south-central Utah. I had been looking forward to my first real opportunity to get away from all the city lights and photograph the Milky Way. After snapping a few photos (which I will share in subsequent posts), I jumped in front of the camera to grab a few photos of me in my branded t-shirt so I had a new profile picture for my Facebook page, Twitter profile, Flickr, Pinterest, etc. But the last thing I expected to have happen was for the International Space Station to photobomb me.
That’s right! After I snapped this photo, I noticed a long light trail and looked up to see the station floating overhead. I wasn’t exactly sure if it was the ISS, so I didn’t think much of it. But once I returned home and saw an email from SpottheStation that the ISS had passed overhead around 4:40 am on Saturday, July 20, I confirmed this photobombing.
I took another photo of me pointing out the intruder in my photo (see it here), then went on to grab a few more photos before making my way back to camp around 5 am. It was pretty scary being up in the mountains, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, standing on a dock, armed only with my camera gear and a few flashlights. But in looking at the photos I was able to capture, it was totally worth it.
But I just had to share the photobombing photo first! Hope you’ll stick around to check out the other Milky Way photos in the coming days.
~signed, Carltonaut
Carltonaut 