There won't be too many more opportunities to see a NASA space shuttle grace the night skies. I took my 7 year old
daughter up on the deck to witness this transit of the shuttle trailing behind the ISS. Each shot is a 15 second
exposure catching the motion of the craft against the stars and mountains. The shot above shows the pair as they
started out in the northwest sky. See the images below for more progress on the transit over Tucson.


The Catalina Mountains are illuminated by moonlight.


The ISS passes just below Polaris (the North Star)


The shuttle Atlantis is just about to cross very close to Polaris


The Pleiades star cluster is on the far right in this image (above).


The ISS is just above the Pleiades in this shot.


Towards the end of the transit, with the Moon just outside of the frame in the top right corner.


The tail end of the transit. Note how the ISS takes on a slight red hue as the light is diffracted by the dust in the atmosphere.