It's not easy to capture images of the International Space Station (ISS) from down here. The space station orbits Earth at a speed of 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h) and it's visible only as a tiny speck of light when seen from below. Imagine that small speck flying over the Rome Colosseum and you'll understand why this photograph is a once in a lifetime occurrence.

The Virtual Telescope Project is a robotic facility run by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi that allows people around the world to do real-time observations of the sky. Masi, in collaboration with the Parco archeologico del Colosseo, took the rare snap of the ISS passing the largest amphitheatre in the world on December 6. The image shows the amphitheatre in a circle over which the space station transits forming a long streak of white light.