The International Space Station Makes a Pass at the Moon in This Week's Photos

This has been quite the week for photographs of the International Space Station. Not inside the space station, but of it in its natural orbit around Earth with a stunning backdrop of the sun and Moon.

First, a French astrophotographer captured a stunning image of a partial solar eclipse with the International Space Station and the Moon silhouetted upon it (see below). Wired reports that Thierry Legualt only had 0.86 seconds to capture the shot on Tuesday before the space station would have crossed the sun at its 17,500 mph pace.

In other amazing shots, on Wednesday evening, 240 miles away from the Moon at NASA's Johnson Space Center Lauren Harnett was equipped with a regular Nikon D3S, 600mm lens and 2x converter. With that she was able to snap images of the International Space Station next to the Moon in amazing clarity.

The Daily Mail has more on Harnett's shots:

The picture, meanwhile, is very deceptive because the Moon is actually well over 200,000 miles beyond the Station, but they look here as if they might collide.

The photographer, Lauren Harnett, told MailOnline that she was lucky to see the Station. She said: "It's amazing the amount of interest it has sparked, especially when it almost didn't happen due to an overcast sky."

As Spaceflight Now points out, it may look like the space station has begun to orbit the Moon -- it hasn't. Spaceflight Now refers to the ISS as the "brightest man-made object in the night sky."