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Andrew McCarthy photographed skydiver Gabriel Brown crossing the Sun from a ground-based telescope at Willcox Playa, Arizona. The apparent solar transit was a carefully timed alignment of the Sun, aircraft, jumper and camera—not a person anywhere near the Sun. The finished image, titled The Fall of Icarus, combines the real skydiver capture with separately assembled solar imagery.
The alignment that made the photograph possible
McCarthy’s telescope had a very narrow field of view. From one fixed observing point, the aircraft carrying Brown had to cross precisely through the Sun’s disk, and Brown then had to leave the aircraft at the correct moment. A small error in the aircraft’s line or the jumper’s timing would put the silhouette outside the frame.
Willcox Playa provided the practical advantage the team needed: broad, flat, open terrain. The pilot could see McCarthy’s position and use visual cues and reflected light to refine the approach. Reports say the aircraft made six alignment passes before the jump.
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The team also had to choose the Sun’s elevation carefully. If the Sun was too high, the aircraft would cross the narrow solar field too quickly. If it was too low, Brown would have less altitude and time to deploy the parachute safely. McCarthy told Space.com on November 22, 2025: “We did some math, and we figured out there was a sweet spot in the morning where the sun was low enough that we could coordinate the aircraft, but high enough that the skydiver could still pull the chute and land safely, and also, importantly, the skydiver would be within focus.”
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What happened during the one jump attempt
The reported setup gave the team only one actual jump attempt after the positioning work. New Atlas reported an exit altitude of roughly 3,500 feet and a camera-to-skydiver distance of about 8,000 feet (2,440 meters). Those are figures reported for this shoot, not independent measurements or general requirements for solar photography.
- Choose the observing location. McCarthy established a fixed telescope position on the open playa so the pilot could line up with it.
- Calculate the timing window. The team selected a morning period balancing aircraft transit time, Brown’s available altitude and the Sun’s position.
- Refine the flight path. The aircraft made reported alignment passes so the pilot could approach the telescope’s narrow field consistently.
- Set the focus and framing. McCarthy used a wider view to help guide the aircraft and a tighter view aimed at a solar active region.
- Execute the jump. Brown had to pass across the Sun at the exact instant the camera was recording, then deploy his parachute with an adequate safety margin.
Why focusing was unusually difficult
The telescope was focused on the distant Sun, while Brown was much closer in Earth’s atmosphere. That difference in subject distance meant the camera could not be treated like a normal landscape setup. The morning timing was selected partly so the skydiver would remain within the usable focus range while crossing the solar disk.
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The image therefore depended on more than pointing at the Sun and waiting for a jumper to appear. Focus, aircraft path, field of view, Sun altitude and the parachutist’s exit timing all had to work together.
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McCarthy used hydrogen-alpha solar equipment, including a Lunt 60mm H-alpha telescope, a 2.5x Powermate and ASI cameras, according to Space.com. An H-alpha system isolates a narrow wavelength associated with hydrogen in the Sun’s chromosphere. That reveals structures such as prominences, loops and active-region detail that do not appear in the same way in an ordinary white-light photograph.
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The equipment references describe this particular setup; they are not a universal beginner’s shopping list. Safe solar imaging requires purpose-built solar filtration and a setup appropriate to the camera and telescope.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Was the skydiver photo real or composited?
The skydiver’s transit was a real, coordinated capture from the ground. Brown was silhouetted against the Sun from McCarthy’s viewpoint; he was not physically close to the Sun.
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- Black polymer is the most common filtering material for observing sunspots and granulation, through telescopes and binoculars.
- These sheets are a quality product of Thousand Oaks Optical, Arizona, a manufacturer of safe solar filters for over 30 years. "Stronger than Mylar with the filtering properties protected within the substrate. Guaranteed five years."
- Make a filter on your own for any telescope / binoculars / camera, and for a fraction of what factory made filters cost.
- The sun will appear in a natural orange color when viewed through your telescope using this filter.
- WARNING: ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE FILTER IS WELL ATTACHED TO THE TELESCOPE/BINOCULARS, USING STICKY TAPE, TO KEEP IT FROM FALLING WHILE OBSERVING!
The final presentation is not a single untouched exposure containing a high-resolution full solar disk. McCarthy made a tighter capture of Brown crossing the Sun and also photographed the Sun at a wider scale. Reports describe a mosaic of more than 100 solar-image tiles for the broader presentation, aligned with the closer skydiver image.
That makes The Fall of Icarus best described as a real photographed alignment presented with composite solar imagery and context. Calling it completely unaltered would be inaccurate, but calling the skydiver fabricated would also misrepresent how the central event was recorded.
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The constraints at a glance
| Constraint | What the reports describe | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Willcox Playa, Arizona | Open, flat terrain helped the pilot see and align with the photographer. |
| Alignment passes | Six reported aircraft passes | Smithsonian Magazine’s account of this shoot. |
| Exit altitude | Roughly 3,500 feet | Reported by New Atlas for the jump. |
| Camera-to-skydiver distance | About 8,000 feet (2,440 meters) | Reported by New Atlas; not independently measured here. |
| Solar mosaic | More than 100 tiles | Reported by Space.com for the wider solar image. |
| Solar detail | Hydrogen-alpha imaging | Used to show chromosphere structures and active-region detail. |
What the photograph demonstrates
The striking effect comes from scale and viewpoint. Brown remained in the atmosphere above Arizona, while the telescope compressed the enormous distance to the Sun into one narrow line of sight. Because the Sun’s apparent disk is small in the sky and the telescope’s field was tighter still, the result required aircraft navigation and photographic planning more like an aerial rendezvous than a casual silhouette shot.
For painters and other image-makers, the useful lesson is that the drama is grounded in real geometry: a fixed viewpoint, a predictable solar path, a rehearsed aircraft line and a precisely timed human movement. The later mosaic expands the Sun’s visible detail without changing the fact that Brown’s crossing was photographed in real time.
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