No, it’s not a speck of dirt on the camera’s imaging chip, but rather the gorgeous photograph of the Space Shuttle Atlantis and Hubble Space Telescope during transit in front of the sun, courtesy of astrophotographer Thierry Legault, who traveled from Paris to Cape Canaveral to catch these fleeting photographs using his Takahashi refractors for large field deep-sky imaging mounted to a Canon 5D Mark II.  With the shuttle attempting a third landing attempt on Sunday, now is the perfect time to highlight the mission’s recent success in extending the life of Hubble. Here’s more eye-popping work from Thierry — including some very insightful commentary and faqs — and the NASA image gallery from STS-125, where Thierry’s work popped up on the daily gallery several days ago.

So how did he do it? Thierry used a “Takahashi TOA-130 refractor (diameter 130mm, final focal 2200mm or 3400mm) on Manfrotto video tripod, Baader solar prism and Canon 5D mark II, plus a detailed map of Florida, a GPS (for the precise location) and a radio-controlled watch (for the precise time). Exposure of 1/8000s at 100 ISO. The ships being too small and too fast to be watched through the viewfinder, a “blind” series of 16 images (at a pace of 4 images/s) starts 2 seconds before the predicted time.” Here’s more.

images: (top) the top of Atlantis and Hubble, “with the angle to Atlantis coming from a little towards the tail,” copyright Thierry Legault and used with permission.

(Below, all courtesy of NASA except the image of Thierry) Earth is silhouetted on Flight Day 10, featuring the payload bay and Canadian robotic arm.

The Hubble Space Telescope is seen from the aft window of the Space Shuttle Atlantis following a separation. This is the last mission to service the Hubble telescope.

Thierry Legault (left) looks to the heavens with Endeavour in the background. STS-125 mission specialist John Grunsfeld (right) uses a Nikon D2x(s?) and (what appears to be) a Nikon 400mm 2.8 to photograph the Hubble Space Telescope.

The flight deck of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Atlantis can be seen clearly due to Hubble’s solar panels acting like window shades. Note the Nikon flash in the upper right hand corner either floating or stuck to the deck using velcro.