These photos to me show that we are in the age of hardware, where the cost of producing high quality images of this caliber are possible by a dude, with a truck, in Australia.

This "dude" has been doing this for a long time. He is famous for such images. He has a passion for such convergences. Visit his website (root of the link) for more. He also did the solar eclipse + ISS : http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/eclipse110104_solar_transit.html

90% of this equation was that the dude knew science and math. When an app on my iphone can tell me when and where and how to stand and setup my gear, I'll hand over the reigns to it being the hardware that made this photo happen.