Time-lapse photo shows ISS, Andromeda Galaxy over Guelph Lake

A Guelph photographer has captured the International Space Station crossing the skies over Guelph Lake in a time-lapse photo.

The ISS appears as a horizontal line across part of the sky in the photo taken by Andrew Goodwin for the website BeautifulGuelph.com, which highlights the work of local photographers capturing Guelph scenes.

"I have a keen interest in space exploration, and keep my attention on what is going on in that realm. The ISS is this widely known human-made object, or building, kind of like the tower of London, or Taj Mahal, but it orbits the earth so is visually accessible to everyone (if they can catch it)," Goodwin said in an email to CBC News.

"It's like getting a photo of a celebrity."

'Seriously stunning'

The photo also shows the Andromeda Galaxy, which Goodwin said is incredible.

"The photons from [Andromeda] traveled 2.5 million years to eventually be captured on the surface of the image sensor in the camera, in some way immortalizing them. It's the largest and the most distant object that can be seen by human eyes unaided by technology," he said.

The photo also features a dotted line, which Goodwin said was an airplane with blinking lights, and two streaks that were likely meteors.

The photo is a single frame from a time-lapse video Goodwin is working on. Another video Goodwin did of downtown Guelph in 2014 received a lot of attention in the city.

He posted the photo to Reddit where others commented the photo is "seriously stunning" and a "phenomenal picture."