Photographer succeeds in capturing skydiver in front of the sun

Samuel Buchmann

17/11/2025

Translation: machine translated

Through a telescope, Andrew McCarthy photographed a skydiver falling from the sky in front of the sun in the Arizona desert. The picture went viral.

The US astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has succeeded in taking an amazing picture: «The Fall of Icarus» shows a parachutist falling through the picture in front of the sun's surface. The photo required a lot of planning, preparation and a bit of luck. But the result is now going viral.

McCarthy photographed his friend, musician and skydiver Gabriel Brown, through a telescope from the Arizona desert. Brown jumped from a paramotor (a paraglider with a propeller drive) from a height of around one kilometre. The two coordinated the position and time of the jump by radio. Six attempts were necessary until the timing was right.

To make the parachutist appear so small in relation to the sun, an extremely long focal length and a long shooting distance were required. The distance between McCarthy and Brown was around 2.5 kilometres.

«This is why we need to support man-made art»

The photo looks particularly spectacular because McCarthy used a telescope with a filter for hydrogen alpha light. It reveals details on the surface of the sun that would otherwise not be visible. The star is currently experiencing violent solar storms, which are stirring up the atmosphere

As is usual in astrophotography, the final image is the result of several shots. McCarthy captured the parachutist in front of the sun in one image. However, to make as many details visible on the surface of the sun as possible, he combined several images like a mosaic to create a high-resolution whole.

McCarthy documented his employees with several short clips on social media and is being celebrated for his photo. Limited edition prints are available on his website.

Even in the age of AI-generated art, real images still seem to be in demand. The stories behind them are more inspiring than someone writing a prompt in a text field. Or as one Reddit user puts it: «This is why we need to keep supporting real human-made art. This is f***ing beautiful!»

Samuel Buchmann

Senior Editor

Samuel.Buchmann@digitecgalaxus.ch

My fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.

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