The Wolf Moon that rose on the evenings of 3 and 4 January 2026 certainly got the new year off to a wonderful start.
Here at BBC Sky at Night Magazine, we had so many emails, images and messages sent to us about how beautiful the full Moon looked, especially on the morning of Saturday 3 January when early risers got the the chance to see it sink below the horizon before dawn.
The January Wolf Moon was also located close to the planet Jupiter in the evening sky, making for a beautiful conjunction of Moon and planet.
Among the many images we received of the 2026 Wolf Moon, this one really stood out.
Tianyao Yang captured an image of the International Space Station passing in front of the January full Moon, as seen from Shanghai, China.
It's a composite image, whereby the photographer captured multiple views of the ISS, then stitched them together using computer software, to show the Space Station's path across the Moon.
The image was captured on 3 January 2026 at 20:57:46, China Standard Time, Yang says, which is 12:57 UTC, and it took less than a second for the ISS to pass in front of the Moon.
To put the image into perspective, the International Space Station is about 400km (250 miles) from Earth, whereas the Moon is about 385,000km (239,000 miles) from Earth, according to NASA.
Moon photography advice
"My photograph records the brief silhouette of the Space Station as it crossed the lunar disk, combining a human-made spacecraft with a natural celestial object in a single moment," says Yang.
"The final image was produced by selecting and stacking frames from a high-speed continuous shooting sequence to clearly show the outline of the ISS against the bright lunar surface."
As we await the launch of NASA's Artemis II early in 2026, which will send human beings around the Moon and back to Earth for the first time since Apollo 8 in 1968, this image is a timely reminder of our close relationship with our natural satellite, but also of our small place within the enormity of the cosmos.
See more of Tianyao Yang's photography via his Instagram channel @tythunder17.
Capture details
- Equipment: Sony A1 camera, Sony 600mm f/4 G Master lens with 2× teleconverter, iOptron HST equatorial mount
- Software: ISO 500, 1/3200s, 30 frames per second continuous shooting
- Processing: Frame selection and stacking using image processing software
If you're an astrophotographer, whether experienced or complete beginner, send us your images and they could appear in a future issue of BBC SKy at Night Magazine
