Photographer captures NASA's Roman Space Telescope crossing the sun during SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch
Space.com's Josh Dinner traveled to a Titusville Hobby Lobby parking lot to photograph a rare solar transit alignment during the August 30 launch of NASA's flagship observatory.
What happened
On August 30 at 07:26:49 a.m. EDT, SpaceX launched NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex-39A. The launch featured an instantaneous window requiring precision to the second for proper orbital delivery. Due to a rare geometric alignment between the sun's position and the rocket's trajectory visible only from specific vantage points, photographers gathered at a Hobby Lobby parking lot in Titusville, approximately 12 miles from the launch site, to capture the telescope crossing the sun during ascent. Space.com photojournalist Josh Dinner initially remained at the KSC press site three miles away but decided approximately one hour before launch to drive to the Titusville location after colleagues encouraged the attempt. He shot the transit using a Canon R5 Mark II camera with an RF100-400mm lens and a solar filter, settings configured just minutes before liftoff.
Context
The Roman Space Telescope is NASA's newest flagship observatory designed to image the widest views of the universe, map planets around alien stars, and investigate phenomena like dark matter and dark energy from an orbital point nearly 1 million miles from Earth. Solar transit photography during rocket launches is exceptionally rare, requiring precise alignment of the sun's position, launch trajectory, and viewing location that shifts daily with seasonal changes. The Falcon Heavy launches infrequently compared to SpaceX's Falcon 9, making such alignments particularly uncommon for this vehicle class. The photographer's decision to leave the press site to pursue this shot involved trading proximity to the primary launch event for an opportunity to capture an astronomically challenging photograph, a trade-off influenced by colleagues' encouragement and equipment support offered at launch time.