Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

https://www.iflscience.com/the-fall-of-icarus-you-have-never-seen-an-astrophotography-picture-like-this-81570

by doener • 8 months ago

471 95 8 months ago

The silhouette of Brown is neatly demarcated against the bubbling surface of the Sun. His downward trajectory is perfectly framed between sunspots, active regions on the surface of the Sun that are slightly cooler than their surrounding areas. This is not just a pretty picture; it is truly a masterpiece

Excuse me while I go wash off the stench of AI-generated descriptions. The picture is very nice, though.

causal• 8 months ago

This is not just a ...

Dead giveaway

JumpCrisscross• 8 months ago

Kagi just launched an AI flagging feature. This is something HN needs.

I don’t mind AI content. But I’m not going to read it carefully before commenting, and will double check it with real sources before changing my mind about anything.

schiffern2• 8 months ago

AI-diom (n.) - an idiom which, while not exclusive to AI, is so frequent in AI output as to strongly suggest its use

BuyMyBitcoins• 8 months ago

Let’s bump up the AI even more, instead of “dead giveaway” you should have used hence.

dylan6046• 8 months ago

it's from iflscience which I would be shocked if there were more than 10 humans working for that site. it is so heavily loaded with ads/tracking that it gives no indication of giving a shit about its readers. i saw several parts of the site not loading due to uBO. just to see what was missing, i disabled uBO and after refreshing was presented with a blocking popup that says "our site depends heavily on" blah blah with a link to how to disable the blocker for the site. however, that's how i got to the modal was by disabling the blocker. the site was more functional with it enabled.

again, what would one expect from a site that has that feel of doing nothing than hoping to generate a viral headline just to infect those unfortunate to have actually followed the link

1gn15• 8 months ago

Who cares?

wincy• 8 months ago

It’s a very cool picture. Andrew McCarthy sells prints of these and other astrophotography on his website[0] although they’re always limited run prints. I bought the one of the sun with a SpaceX rocket for a friend who is into astronomy.

As a sales strategy, making his photos limited edition is a fantastic way to put the pressure on to actually buy instead of thinking about making a purchase indefinitely, even if from a convenience standpoint it’s a little annoying. Looks like right now the 16”x20” edition is sold out, but other sizes are still available for about two days.

[0] https://cosmicbackground.io/pages/the-fall-of-icarus

dahart5• 8 months ago

making his photos limited edition is a fantastic weay to put the pressure on to actually buy

FWIW, limited edition printing is absolutely standard practice for working artists who use media that can be easily or mechanically replicated, including photographers, printers, and digital artists.

The feeling of FOMO that it instills is indeed one reason, that benefits the artist, but the main reason limited editions are used is to add value to the art through scarcity, and this reason benefits you the buyer. People don’t want to be the first to find and buy something unique only to have it get so popular that all your friends and neighbors go buy the same thing, right?

The story of uniqueness is important. There’s a very real perception that art that can be reproduced indefinitely and is always available is cheap and not really fine art. Limited editions prints are trying, even if half-heartedly, to compete with painters and sculptors who produce something unique every single time. I say half-heartedly as a digital artist who prints limited editions, not as an insult. There is a slight degree of having cake and eating too. Limited editions are usually sized near the estimated sales limit, or such that the artist can move on to selling other work without feeling like they lost a big opportunity.

Limited edition print runs do lower the price of a print, but not as low as the cost of printing. If an artist does editions of size 1, they need to make enough money to live, and $90/print won’t do it if you only sell one. You can spread the profit across a run and give a group of people something for a low price instead of giving one person a high price.

LargeWu• 8 months ago

If there's any difference between printmaking and photography, it's that printmaking requires one to physically print each item. There's a non-trivial amount of manual setup to do, and the process can take days.

Photography can be printed basically on-demand owing to the nature of the medium.

It doesn't mean that limited runs in photography are less valid, though. Once that print is editioned no reputable artist will just print more. (although there are ways around it, like different colorways) It definitely makes the item more "collectible".

markdown2• 8 months ago

You can spread the profit across a run and give a group of people something for a low price instead of giving one person a high price.

Why not somewhere in between those options:

For example (made up numbers), sell 100 units at $100 after which the price goes up by $10 for each additional sale. So the 100th unit would be $100, the 101st unit $110, the 200th unit $1100, and so on.

mholt• 8 months ago

I get the whole scarcity thing -- and I've even asked Andrew about this -- because if I'm willing to give him my money after saving up for it, but it sells out first, wouldn't he make more money if he took mine then?

But, I guess we just have to have an art budget with some money already set aside if we want to jump on opportunities when artists do this. I respect it, but yes it's a bit inconvenient.

PS. The full, uncropped shot is even more incredible IMO: https://cosmicbackground.io/cdn/shop/files/Overhead_black_li...

pixl97• 8 months ago

wouldn't he make more money if he took mine then?

Marketing is far more complex then you're giving it credit for. Take the Factorio game, they don't have sales ever so the best time to buy the game is now. This both keeps people that buy things on sale even if they don't like it from getting it, and keeps other people that may wait for a sale and forget about it from not buying it now.

The same is true for limited numbers. Some people may want it and put it in the cart, but never actually buy it because there is no strong binary motivator. This motivator can actually increase sales quickly and ensure you dont hold inventory for long periods of time.

Also things are commonly bought in batches to reduce price. Your one painting later could either be much more expensive or require the artist to buy 50/100 units at once that risk becoming stuck inventory.

pbalau• 8 months ago

because if I'm willing to give him my money after saving up for it, but it sells out first, wouldn't he make more money if he took mine then?

If the piece sold out, he made his money.

kevin_thibedeau• 8 months ago

It's the same situation with $1000 theater tickets. You aren't the market.

markdown2• 8 months ago

If I were him I would put out a limited edition at a fixed price like he currently does, but then add $X0? $X00? cumulatively to the price of each additional unit sold.

bethekidyouwant2• 8 months ago

Just print it and glue stick it to your wall

Sharlin• 8 months ago

You can't directly compare the two scenarios. Without the incentive to buy due to limited availability, he might have never sold as many copies, or at least it might have taken much longer.

jstanley• 8 months ago

Am I right in thinking he flew up there in a paramotor and then jumped off it? What happened to the paramotor? It just crashed in a random place you have no control over?

raddan• 8 months ago

According to the article there was a pilot in addition to a skydiver.

dahart5• 8 months ago

There’s a video of the jump in the article. You can kinda see the pilot in the paramotor flying away, as the jumper leaves.

mistrial9• 8 months ago

LOL - the deeper mythological meanings are quite applicable (!)

What meanings, a reader might ask? First to say, art and mythos can have layers of meanings..There is no "right answer" exactly. think for yourself a moment about "falling" "The Sun", "a son", endeavor, catastrophe, and add knowledge or fate as you see fit.

yzydserd• 8 months ago

I sort of like it upside down, power of ra.

russdill• 8 months ago

Watching the video, the difference between the actual frame captured and the manipulated stacked image that's being presented is quite stark.

dahart5• 8 months ago

Is the full-sun photo edited to remove the paramotor? I just realized it was in the video shot - the head-down dive “tracking” position of the skydiver in the video happens only a few frames after jumping, only for a few frames, and after that he’s tumbling a bit against the sun, with the paramotor still visible. I’m guessing even if the video and still were two different cameras, they wouldn’t have been far enough apart to catch the skydiver without the paramotor?

__atx__• 8 months ago

Apparently it took multiple tries to get this right. It is possible that the video is from one of the earlier failed attempts.

bangaladore• 8 months ago

On a Reddit thread somewhere, the OP mentioned the sun is taken as a mosaic, where the picture taken with just the person is a very small FOV which excludes the paramotor.

cletusw• 8 months ago

In the behind the scenes video the photographer makes an offhand comment that yes, he was going to take the silhouette of the skydiver (and maybe some of the immediate surroundings) and composite it with a mosaic of sun images taken around the same time (but without the paramotor present).

Springtime• 8 months ago

I recall one of their earlier composites of the sun which was comprised of 90k (!) images and feel that's an acceptable approach to represent the detail and scope desired, yet with this skydiver shot I feel differently in that there is an original shot of the event that is an actual through-the-lens capture but it's not being used and instead the foreground element (the silhouette) is being masked and composited onto a much more detailed composite sun. It's effectively artwork now.

Like if a photo of Philippe Petit's WTC wire walking were instead masked and replaced with separately shot towers—it'd represent the event but technically not the actual snapshot in time it occurred, which kind of reduces the connection with the interesting concept at least for me.

ChrisArchitect• 8 months ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45919692

dang• 8 months ago

Related. Others?

I captured my friend transiting the sun during a skydive - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45919692 - Nov 2025 (12 comments)

dvh• 8 months ago

"what comes up must come down" -- Icarus

dotancohen• 8 months ago

"That's not my department" said Wernher von Braun.

GMoromisato2• 8 months ago

This is a classic example of a simple idea that no one had ever done before. The execution was complex, of course, and Andrew McCarthy is one of the most skilled astrophotographers. But once you get the idea, a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did.

Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! You can bet McCarthy is already thinking some.

p.s.: My brush with celebrity is that I saw an Andrew McCarthy post on Quora when he was first getting started with astrophotography and gave him a few tips. Always important to remember that everyone was a beginner at one point: https://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-pro-tips-for-astrophotog...

mjamil• 8 months ago

Your advice there is really valuable. Thanks for providing it. I've always wondered how to post-process my night images, and this is a really good guide for that.

GMoromisato2• 8 months ago

Glad it helped! I definitely encourage you to continue practicing post-processing. There is a lot of magic there, and it's fun too.

nullhole2• 8 months ago

I had an idea for survey planes once. During calibration, they fly grid patterns, basically like a hashmark (#), to get overlapping data for comparison.

Doing that kind of flight at night (makes sense for lidar! not so much for photo..), against a clear sky with at least some stars, and stacking the resulting photos, would give you a grid pattern of green/red/white aircraft running lights in front of the heavens.

pmontra• 8 months ago

I happen to live at the crossing of two major flight lines, E-W and N-S, so I might actually attempt to do that. Maybe a lot of 1 tenth exposures could be enough. Trial and errors to get started, as usual.

mxfh• 8 months ago

The overlapping pattern is! the flight pattern. The overlap is not some calibration artifact, it is the product for any sort of stereo evaluation.

Forgeties79• 8 months ago

What a fantastic little story ha I love this. I need to get back out and do some astrophotography myself… not that I’m nearly as good as either of you (even 7 years ago lol)

dylan6046• 8 months ago

Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there!

There are examples of planes silhouetting the sun or moon. There are examples of the ISS. There are examples of planets (Mercury/Venus) crossing the sun, not the moon (obviously). I think someone else mentioned rockets being captured too.

People have also done similar with the moons of other planets. And of course that's how exoplanets have been discovered by looking the effects of a planet crossing between our line of sight of its host star.

schiffern2• 8 months ago

FYI some of those amazing shots were also taken by Andrew McCarthy.

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1611128761776492544/

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1479541092693381120/

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1837219848478412935/

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1968658340679921925/

ChrisMarshallNY2• 8 months ago

a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did

My personal definition of "genius," is someone who sees things from a different angle, and can express it in terms we can implement.

It's not doing well on IQ tests; It's that ability to think "outside the box," and, crucially, to express that vision in terms that us normies can use.

jeswin• 8 months ago

There are all types of geniuses. By confining its definition to selected variants of "outside the box", you've defined a new box in a different coordinate system.

Lio• 8 months ago

I remember Damien Hirst's response to people saying that anyone could have created his "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living"[1].

He'd simply respond with "But you didn't, did you?".

I think that Hirst had a point.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Physical_Impossibility_of_...

ecoled_ame• 8 months ago

indeed!

dazbradbury• 8 months ago

Be great to have the same shot but in front of the moon. Photos would make a stunning pair!

almosthere• 8 months ago

I have to say, well done.

sswaner• 8 months ago

Perhaps just me still carrying some latent trauma, but the upside down, legs bent moment reminded me of a picture from 9/11. Not going to link to it.

doctaj• 8 months ago

https://archive.ph/OrVxL

amatecha• 8 months ago

Better post IMO: https://petapixel.com/2025/11/14/sun-skydiver-photo-andrew-m...

cosmic_ape4• 8 months ago

Tbh, do not quite get the excitement around this picture. It was staged, and the stunt doesn’t appear to be particularly complex. A lot of logistics, sure. But seems like all there is to it is that someone just bothered to do it. So not clear what’s the additional value over photoshop.

mvcosta91• 8 months ago

Try to reproduce it yourself, bro.

cosmic_ape4• 8 months ago

A lot of logistics, as mentioned. If you’d like to explain what’s in there beyond that, I’ll be glad to hear.

fxwin• 8 months ago

So not clear what’s the additional value over photoshop.

I think photography might just not be for you (nothing wrong with that)

cosmic_ape4• 8 months ago

Care to explain? I actually do take pictures with a camera from time to time.

Again, this was staged. Also, when Tom Cruise performed his own stunts in Mission Impossible, that value I can understand. That is better than photoshop. Because they were hard stunts. This on the other hand seems to be standard.

jpfromlondon• 8 months ago

I like photography doubly so as a craft, and forgive me if a heavily shopped stacked comp isn't making my heart quicken.

Espressosaurus• 8 months ago

The difference is THEY DID IT.

Photoshop is not real.

This was real.

This was recorded.

The value is in the authenticity and execution of a cool idea no one else has done before.

NetOpWibby• 8 months ago

Deus Ex: Human Revolution intensifies

K0balt• 8 months ago

Very unique and cool image.

I was curious at first if this was planned, or if it was a bizzare coincidence… I’m not sure whether to be enthralled or disappointed. On one side is the wonderful creation of chaos, on the other is a marvel of photographic engineering.

criddell• 8 months ago

I’m get a box right away asking me to turn off my ad blocker. I’m not running an ad blocker…

FrameworkFred• 8 months ago

same :(

helsinkiandrew• 8 months ago

I think the same photographers ISS passing infront of the Sun and moon are more impressive:

https://www.demilked.com/iss-in-front-of-sun-and-moon-andrew...

ZebusJesus• 8 months ago

Great photo for science and art at the same time!

Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

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