Photographing the ISS

[JohnP]

They are very good - didn't think of trying EOS to capture this with single frame images...? You have got the focal length with the C11 though...

You should try downloading the tracking software that Mac has...

Good one - John...

[spacenickoy]

What do you guys make of this?

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/41Group_Lunar_FYEO/02files/FYEO_Spacecraft_01.html

Apparently the guy has come up with a similar technique to what some students at Cambridge came up with to drastically improve clarity and detail in pictures taken with a normal amateur telescope. There was a publication about it just a few months ago on the bbc website, something about how they had found a way of taking astrophotogrpahy better than some of the biggest telescopes with a backyard scope. I cannot for the life of me find the article tho which is pretty annoying.

Anyway according to this guy, he can take immensely detailed pictures of objects around Earth orbit and beyond and that is what the pictures on that website are. However what they are exactly of is open to debate, they all look like space stations of some sort but as far as I'm aware the is only one space station currently in orbit and a lot of debris.

Any ideas on this one people? is the guy who took these pictures a fraud? I know Fay and Mike are amazing astrophotographers what is your view on the pictures. Is this science fiction or is there a basis to his claims?

[Mac]

Sat tracker software

http://www.heavenscape.com/

[mickw]

Hi Nick
I think this is the technology you are refering to
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~optics/Lucky_Web_Site/LI_CLASI.htm

As for the pics, I think the tree is an honest representation, the rest is fraud/misinformation.
There is/was loads of structures hurtling around us.  Big stuff would be Skylab, Salyut, Mir and ISS, plus there are defence/communication structures that don't get their photos on the front pages - If they did, they would be of better quality.
Mick

[MarkS]

Why can I only see one set of solar panels?

According to APOD in June http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070625.html there should be 2 sets.  I guess it's a question of orientation of the craft and the panels.

[Mike]

Nick,

Load of tosh as far as i'm concerned, The images are far too blurry (suspiciously so) to see any detail. If someone manages to obtain a detailed image fo something such as Marks) then maybe we can reassess it.

[Ian]

Why can I only see one set of solar panels?

According to APOD in June http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070625.html there should be 2 sets.  I guess it's a question of orientation of the craft and the panels.

Maybe it wasn't the ISS after all, but a secret space laboratory where the government are researching more interesting ways of losing our personal details?

[spacenickoy]

Yeah the station should have two sets of panels but the picture could have been taken before they were installed.

I think the idea of the gvt building secret space stations is highly improbable as there are too many people tracking launches in the World. However I know you were only being sarcastic anyway Ian. And I completely agree with you! ID cards, they can kiss my ass.

Mike cheers for your input, I was highly skeptical anyway just interested as I'd heard about the technique pointed out by mickw and the fact that there is a picture of the space station thrown in there. Just thought you guys might be interested and wanted an opinion from some experts

[Tony G]

But these photos were only taken the weekend, so surely the two sets of panels should be showing.

Tony G

[Jim]

Tony
I think the other 4 panels are at right angles so in Marks picture they are edge on and thus not visible. 

[MarkS]

Jim is right.  The "missing" panels are at right angles.  I took some more today but the flypast wasn't so ideal: the sun didn't light it so well and I was not using the focal reducer, so the images are larger but more noisy.

As it approached, the upper sets of panels were visible:


At it's closest approach, those panels are now end on:


At this point, it was more or less South and and sun was coming from the West so the sun is coming from the right hand side of the image (which is correctly oriented). So the upper panels are facing the sun.

[Fay]

Mark, I can't believe what a great picture you got of the ISS!!!!! So clear!!  Really well done.



Fay