With approximately 3,000 artificial satellites and another 6,000 pieces of space debris orbitting our planet, it is almost a trivial matter to observe the overhead passage of a satellite across the horizon. One unfortunate consequence of so many satellites and the frequency with which they make their presence obvious is their appearance as streaks of white light in long exposure astrophotos. In fact, it has become almost necessary to check an evening's session ahead of time for potential satellite passes across the proposed field of view during the anticipated imaging period so as to circumvent these unnecessary streaks (or reflections) of light across an image. The image below is one example of such "streaking".

The Chinese Space Station Tiangong ("Sky Palace") represents China's most recent entry into space and follows the Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 modules. It is approximately one-third the size of the ISS (by volume) and has a permanent crew of three astronauts but can accomodate up to six astronauts during missions involving crew rollovers. It has a current mass of 96,000 kg and measures 55.6 meters in length and 39.0 meters across with plans to expand the station from the three existing modules to a total of six modules in the future with the fourth module ("Xuntian") tentatively scheduled for launch in 2024.

The image below is centered on the Summer Triangle and which is comprised of the three brightest stars of the summer sky, namely Vega (α-Lyr, mag +0.09), Deneb (α-Cyg, mag +1.33) and Altair (α-Aql, mag +0.93) , and which represent the primary stars of the constellations Lyra, Cygnus and Aquilla, respectively. The Tiangong space station was shining at a very bright mag -2.1 during the overhead pass and was quite brilliant to the naked eye and despite the heavy local light pollution.