Long exposures of space station flyovers next to moon, Big Dipper

I was covering this country music concert for the newspaper when I took this shot. I cut out the stage on the right side of the frame because it was simply too bright and overexposed.

I'm catching up on posting photos, and these two are a few of the most spectacular sights I've captured recently -- aside from my pretty girlfriend when she wasn't looking.

Two days in a row in April -- the 16th and the 17th -- there were lengthy, five-minute flyovers of the International Space Station at dusk.

For the first, above, I was at the Runaway Country Space Coast Music Fest at Wickham Park, a half-mile from my apartment in Melbourne. This is just a few minutes of the entire flyover, as the station passed right in front of the moon. A lot of the drunken country fans were wondering what the heck I was doing as I looked at the sky. Once I pointed out the spaceship, they oohed and aahed.

The second was taken on a street in Rockledge, near a friend's house. This is perhaps the best photograph I've snapped of a flyover for two reasons: It shows my brand-new vehicle, and the Big Dipper appears quite brilliantly.

Look at my car! Ain't it pretty?