Over the moon

The ISS photographed as it travelled past the moon. Pic courtesy/Aditya Kinjawadeka

Who doesn't enjoy gazing at a clear sky dotted with thousands of stars and a bright, shining moon? While we gaze in awe, Aditya Kinjawadekar, 20, from Pune, is perfecting the art of capturing these fleeting moments with his camera.

Kinjawadekar, who is currently pursuing electronics and telecommunication engineering at Pune University, describes himself as an amateur astrophotographer. But, if you browse through the pictures on his Instagram (@deepsky_wonders), you will realise he is just being modest, when he calls himself an "amateur". "I've been interested in astronomy since I was a child, and I used to spend a lot of time watching shows related to it on TV. But, I only became seriously invested in it about four years ago, when I joined the Jyotirvidya Parisanstha (JVP), India's oldest association of amateur astronomers, and now volunteer at the same," he says. He started pursuing astrophotography about two years ago, and has been photographing space ever since.

While Kinjawadekar already has a large collection, he was able to add a rare click to it recently, when he photographed the International Space Station (ISS), as it travelled past the moon. The ISS is a space laboratory that orbits the Earth 400 km above the Earth's surface.

Aditya Kinjawadekar

"It occasionally passes in front of the moon or the sun, which is referred to as a transit. A transit like this is extremely rare, and the ISS completes the transit in less than half a second. One such transit occurred on November 30, 2020, and it was visible from the outskirts of Pune [near the Khadakwasla dam], and I was able to capture it," Kinjawadekar explains. He, however, only recently shared the image on his Instagram.

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To capture this image, he used a telescope and a mirrorless camera capable of shooting high-frame-rate videos at a high resolution. The location for this shot was
crucial, and even if he had missed it by 500 metres, he probably would not have been able to get it shot. To capture this moment, he used a Skywatcher 6" reflector telescope mounted on an EQ3-2 mount and a Sony A7iii camera.

Kinjawadekar usually travels to Pune's outskirts to pursue his passion. "Because I live in Kothrud, which has a high level of light pollution, doing astrophotography from home is a nightmare, so I usually try to travel outside the city to take astrophotos. I've attempted to click a transit like this every time it appears near my location, but I've only been successful once in three attempts. I also seek assistance from websites that notify you of such events in your specific location," he says. In the past, he has also captured images of distant galaxies and nebulae that are millions of light years away and extremely faint.

While this recent image is a clear winner in his astrophotography collection, what makes it even more special is that one of the astronauts, Thomas Pesquet, who is currently on the space station, saw it and commented on his Instagram post. "That was the icing on the cake," he admits.

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