This picture is from the first eclipse of the New Year. It is a partial solar eclipse, meaning only a fraction of the sun was hidden from sight as the picture clearly depicts. The photographer of this picture, Thierry Legault, planned very carefully from predictions of the eclipse and decided to travel to Muscat so that he would simultaneously be able to capture two different occurrences. The first and obvious is the partial solar eclipse caused by the Moon passing in front of the Sun, however if you look towards the top left region of the Sun you will see another silhouette. This object happens to be the International Space Station, also passing in front of the Sun at the same time. The Moon and ISS are Earth's two largest satellites, making this a unique occurrence. The black shadow in the lower right portion of the Sun is a common Sun Spot, however as you can see it is quite large as it is comparable to the ISS shadow. One problem with the APOD is that it provides a link to a site that is supposed to have a video however the video does not play.
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