Photographer Leaves NASA Press Site to Catch Falcon Heavy Crossing the Sun

A NASA space telescope launch produced an unusually difficult photographic opportunity: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy appeared to pass across the face of the sun as it climbed away from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The image was captured by Space.com photographer Josh Dinner from a Hobby Lobby parking lot in Titusville, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Launch Complex 39A. Dinner had initially planned to watch the launch from the Kennedy Space Center press site, roughly three miles from the pad, but left about 45 minutes before liftoff after learning that other photographers were attempting to line up the rocket with the rising sun. The Falcon Heavy carried NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which launched at 7:26:49 a.m. EDT on Aug. 30, 2026. That exact timing was important not only for the spacecraft’s orbital delivery but also for the photograph. The launch used an “instantaneous” window, meaning the rocket had to depart at a precise moment to reach its intended orbit. According to Space.com’s account, even a short delay could have disrupted the alignment. The sun’s position changes as the morning progresses, while clouds near the horizon threatened to obscure the view. The clouds cleared only in the final minutes before launch. Dinner used trajectory-planning software, camera equipment and a solar filter supplied by photographer David Diebold. He photographed the launch with a Canon R5 Mark II and a 100-400mm lens, using a shutter speed of 1/20,000 second and an aperture of f/16. He said he did not look up to watch the rocket, instead holding down the shutter button and waiting for the expected moment. The transit lasted only a split second. Capturing it also meant giving up a closer viewing position at the Kennedy Space Center, a choice Dinner made despite uncertainty over the weather and whether the alignment would work at all. Solar transits by launching rockets are rare because they require the vehicle’s trajectory, the sun’s position, the photographer’s location and the launch time to line up precisely. The opportunity is even less common for Falcon Heavy, which launches less frequently than SpaceX’s Falcon 9.