That's no space station, it's a moon

I can't speak for the photographer but they were most likely shooting for miles away with I'm assuming a 600mm with an extender added to it at night after twilight already kicked in. If they took it in a single raw image instead of hdr (which is way more complicated in this situation) then what you are most likely seeing is the attempt to edit the moon (very bright) seperate from the skyline (very dark) which will cause some artifacts to show up. If they were able to shoot the scene the night before like they wanted the moon would have been much less bright against the sky and lighthouse and would have been less of a struggle for them.

In regards to sizing, that's depth of field for you. They were most likely on land with a tripod miles away. It's like the Godzilla movies of the past where someone would wear the suit and they would film shots of the guy a mile in front of a hillside. Same thing, by getting really far away they made the lighthouse seem smaller where as the moon is so big that it stays the same size. If they had made the moon bigger in Photoshop I presume they would have simply not have waited for the moment and could have just slapped a moon in from a previous shot. To me the imperfections actually make me believe it was a legit shot, where as a perfect shot at this time of night from that distance would be much less believable.

I love the shot