The shot. perfectly aligned with the sun, create a stunning image dubbed ‘The Fall of Icarus’. It required immense planning and precision, said astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy.
An astrophotographer has captured a spectacular shot of a falling skydiver perfectly aligned with the fiery surface of the sun, making it seem like the airborne adventurer is tumbling through the vacuum of space in front of our home star.
Andrew McCarthy, an Arizona-based astrophotographer who specializes in photographing the sun, captured the unlikely photo on Saturday. The shot, dubbed “The Fall of Icarus,” required an “absolutely preposterous” level of planning and “might be the first photo of its kind in existence,” McCarthy wrote in a post on the social platform X.
“Immense planning and technical precision was required for this absolutely preposterous (but real) view: I captured my friend @BlackGryph0n transiting the sun during a skydive. This might be the first photo of it’s kind in existence. See a video of this moment in the reply,” McCarthy’s post reads,
“The moment of the jump, captured in hydrogen alpha light to resolve the sun’s atmosphere,” the post added.
Immense planning and technical precision was required for this absolutely preposterous (but real) view: I captured my friend @BlackGryph0n transiting the sun during a skydive.
This might be the first photo of it’s kind in existence. See a video of this moment in the reply 👇 pic.twitter.com/mkjfavuVsZ
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) November 13, 2025