October 10, 2002
The International Space Station has become one of the most popular satellites for backyard sky gazers to observe - not only because of its brightness, but because most people know what it is and find it interesting to be able to identify it in the sky. During its orbit on the evening of August 30, 2002, the ISS reflected the light from the Sun just as it was travelling through the western sky - coincidently, Venus and Mercury were in the same area of sky, and the ISS flew right inbetween them! Venus is the brightest object in the photo, Mercury is below and to the left of Venus, underneath the satellites trail. It is almost (but not quite) the same distance away from the trail as Venus is - hence the title of this photo, "Celestial Bisector".