From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (seriously what a great website) we have an image taken from the Earth by an enthusiast in Normandy, France.

This incredible image shows the disc of the Sun with a sunspot visible in the top right part of the image. Shown on the left hand side are the silhouettes of the International Space Station and the space shuttle Atlantis which recently departed the station after dropping of the next crew.

A larger version of the image is visible at this link where you can see the station and shuttle in more detail. But here is chunk for you as well.

It is amazing to think that someone took this image from the ground. The Sun is so powerful that it creates very sharp shadows of objects passing through our line of sight with it. Tomorrow the Moon will do just the same thing as seen from South America as we have the final Solar Eclipse of 2006. Sadly not visible at all here in the UK.