Imaging ISS

[Fay]

Interesting article in my monthly magazine, regarding the above.
This chap did it by holding the telescope like a bazooka!!!!!!!!!!!! Worth a try, but strap the laptop down!

[RobertM]

Yes an interesting article.  Flicking through - I also see you've become a celebrity

[Fay]

Robert, I thought there were only 2 of us that had this magazine.
Did you see John's M31, last month & M27 a couple of month's ago?

 

[Tony G]

Fay,

What mag are you on about.

Tony G

[Mac]

Looks like we can have a go if needed at DSC,

Quick check on heavens above shows the ISS is due to make a few passes over the weekend.




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ISS - Visible Passes  | Home | Info. | Orbit | Prev. | Next | Help | 

Search period start: 00:00 Saturday, 1 December, 2007   
Search period end: 00:00 Tuesday, 11 December, 2007
Observer's location: Abbey Wood, 51.4860°N, 0.1100°E
Local time zone: Greenwich Mean Time (UTC + 0:00)
Orbit: 338 x 340 km, 51.6° (Epoch Dec 1)


Click on the date to get a star chart and other pass details.

Date Mag Starts Max. altitude Ends Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
5 Dec 0.2 18:08:54 10 SSW 18:09:46 15 S  18:09:46 15 S 
6 Dec 0.3 18:29:56 10 SW  18:30:51 18 SW  18:30:51 18 SW 
7 Dec -0.4 17:17:27 10 SSW 17:19:34 19 SE  17:20:31 16 ESE
7 Dec 1.0 18:51:24 10 WSW 18:51:50 13 WSW 18:51:50 13 WSW
8 Dec -1.5 17:38:22 10 SW  17:41:02 36 SSE 17:41:26 34 SE 
9 Dec -2.0 17:59:45 10 WSW 18:02:16 58 SSW 18:02:16 58 SSW
10 Dec -1.3 16:46:40 10 SW  16:49:21 35 SSE 16:51:45 11 E 
10 Dec -0.6 18:21:19 10 W  18:23:03 33 W  18:23:03 33 W 


 


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Developed and maintained by Chris Peat, Heavens-Above GmbH
Please read the updated FAQ before sending e-mail.   

[Mac]

there are also a few Iridium flares predicted as well, over Tuesnoad.
As these are only predicted for 7 days, i'll post the details next week
so we can get the cover over the weekend

[Mac]

Sorry lack of sleep today. Just found the next button on Heavens above,

Irridium flares for next weekend

Iridium Flares  | Home | Prev. | Next | Help | 


Clicking on the time of the flare will load another page with more details,
including a map showing the track of the flare along the ground, and the
location of the nearest point of maximum intensity.

Search Period Start:  15:12, Thursday, 06 December, 2007 
Search Period End:  16:12, Thursday, 13 December, 2007 
Observer's Location:  Tuesnoad ( 51.1490°N, 0.7240°E)
Local Time:  Greenwich Mean Time (GMT + 0:00) 


Date Local
Time Intensity
( Mag) Alt.  Azimuth  Distance to
flare centre Intensity at
flare centre
(Mag.) Satellite
06 Dec 17:13:15 -2 62° 47° (NE ) 20.1 km (W) -8 Iridium 37
07 Dec 17:07:07 -4 63° 50° (NE ) 10.2 km (W) -8 Iridium 34
08 Dec 04:56:43 -5 22° 186° (S ) 8.7 km (E) -7 Iridium 61
08 Dec 17:01:01 -2 62° 54° (NE ) 19.7 km (E) -8 Iridium 5
09 Dec 04:55:59 -1 21° 190° (S ) 35.0 km (W) -7 Iridium 36
09 Dec 16:54:53 -3 64° 57° (ENE) 14.1 km (E) -8 Iridium 8
10 Dec 05:54:31 -0 10° 145° (SE ) 115.5 km (W) -5 Iridium 52
10 Dec 06:00:46 -0 16° 153° (SSE) 70.2 km (W) -6 Iridium 91
10 Dec 16:48:46 -1 64° 61° (ENE) 30.8 km (E) -9 Iridium 61
12 Dec 05:51:24 -2 12° 150° (SSE) 47.8 km (W) -6 Iridium 83
13 Dec 05:45:36 -2 10° 150° (SSE) 47.7 km (E) -6 Iridium 56




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Developed and maintained by Chris Peat, Heavens-Above GmbH
Please read the updated FAQ before sending e-mail.     

[Fay]

Tony,
Practical Astronomer. You can't buy it in the shops. I have a years subscription.

Mac,

That is interesting. Would not fancy using your telescope as a bazooka!!!!!!!!!

[MarkS]

Cool!  I'd love to try getting an ISS photo.

I'm wondering how fast it moves across the sky.  Take for example the info you provided for 9 Dec:
9 Dec -2.0 17:59:45 10 WSW 18:02:16 58 SSW 18:02:16 58 SSW

So between 17:59:45 and 18:02:16 it moves from  Alt 10 Az WSW to Alt 58 Az SSW.
i.e. in 150seconds it moves approx 45deg in alt and the same in az
so in 1 sec it moves 0.3 deg in both alt and az

My FOV is 0.6deg so it would whizz across in 2 seconds - so it really does need to tracked somehow.

Actually, I've just re-thought - I was wrong.  The ISS will be brightly sunlit, won't it?  So using the sunlight F16 rule, the shutter speed should be the reciprocal of the ISO.  So at ISO 200 the shutter speed would be 1/200.  But my Celestron/Canon combination is F6.3 so the shutter speed should be 1/1300 instead - let's say 1/1500.

So as long as the ISS passes through the FOV,  1/1500 at F6.3 should give a perfect image ...


You can even "cheat" and drive your telescope like this:
http://www.heavenscape.com/

[mickw]

Fay,
I know practical Astronomer say you can't buy in shops but I've seen it on sale in Telescope House.
Mick

[Fay]

Yes, Mick, I got my very first copy in Telescope House. What I meant was, it is not available on the high street & is best to subscribe.

[Mac]

Already have the software, and its very good,
although whilst i was testing i didn't have my telescope aligned, just plonked on the ground roughly facing north,

i did manage to track a few satelites before they drifted out of the field of view (my polar alignment, not the fault of the software).

So i'm going to have a go at DSC.

And it can track the iss, whilst passing overhead at full tilt.

have a look at these photos that someone has taken.

http://flickr.com/photos/astropics/534392670/
http://flickr.com/photos/astropics/626264477/

http://alvelda.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-catch-transit-iss-over-tycho.html
http://pictures.ed-morana.com/ISSTransits/
http://www.nlsa.com/meade.html

[RobertM]

I would have had the issues for Sept and Oct but they messed up the subscription.  I decided to continue with Nov which came the day before the Dec issue landed on the mat i.e. Friday...

Gives the society good bit of publicity, well done.

[Rick]

Interesting article in my monthly magazine, regarding the above.
This chap did it by holding the telescope like a bazooka!!!!!!!!!!!! Worth a try, but strap the laptop down!

Yeow! Guess you'd need a good aim and a steady hand to do that...

[Fay]

Mac,

That is a fantastic image of ISS going across the Moon, & also the one with te space station docked