Today,I achieved something I have wanted to do for a considerable length of time.A plane crossing the moon.
Everyday this Qantas Dash 8 Q 400 flys over our country property,always at 5.30 pm,without fail-I have watched it fly 'through' the moon a few times.
Today,the moon was at the 'right' phase-approx in line with the planes flight path.So I set up gear (I have done this drill quite a few times!)
I saw the plane along way of and thought 'no-its not going to hit',I stayed beside scope just in case,then as it got closer,I could see "it was going to line up!"
My palm started to sweet-'buck fever',I only want to pull the trigger when I knew the plane was in the centre of the moon.-I got my wish!
Technical details-Vixen 103 ED refractor on Vixen GP mount,guiding by Vixen SS2K,camera 450D at 250 sec 200 iso,And a nerve of steel!
I have also enclosed photos of set up at time of event.
I have a RAW file,and will tweek when I have time,my son helped me get this photo-he has already done a 'auto contrast',and we will upload when we have a improved version.
Last edited by hotspur; 16-09-2010 at 06:44 PM.
Reason: extra detail
Superb stuff Chris, you must be SOOO happy
I've wanted to do this too for many years. I live under an excellent
internationals flightpath and have setup countless nights when the phase is
just right over the flightpath....only to spend hours with nothing.
Brilliant mate
ps: send it to APOD or Spaceweather.com!
Wow – those are quite astonishing photos Chris – well done on the execution of your plans. All the dry runs paid off huh! These shots are really quite spectacular.
How did you manage to download the flight planning elements into the Skysensor 2000 in order to command the GoTo to centre the airplane!
Wow – those are quite astonishing photos Chris – well done on the execution of your plans. All the dry runs paid off huh! These shots are really quite spectacular.
How did you manage to download the flight planning elements into the Skysensor 2000 in order to command the GoTo to centre the airplane!
Cheers
Dennis
Ha-ha,quite funny Dennis-re flight elements into SS2K.!
Really-lot of 'dry runs' and practice really,knowing my equipment well,and doing lots of observing of this plane's flight path and time,and understanding when the moon would be well situated for such a photo.
But the final part-pulling that trigger,knowing it was for real,got me a little nervous!Not only could I 'see' it was going 'through' the moon-but I could see the angle the plane was on was really going to make a 'classic' shot!
I went for 'the one shot option' only,I could have taken mutipal shots,but I would have lost my 'count' as to when plane was exactly in middle,I prefer a 'one shot' method.
Thank you to all the other people who have kindly left a comment.
I have here two adjustments my son has made,I will open the RAW file when I have more time,I am feeling a 'a bit over the moon' at the moment!
Hi all,
This looks like my kind of site and I absolutely love that photo of the Fokker crossing the Moon, Chris. I hope nobody tells you but I have used it for my Desktop. I am from Adelaide in South Australia and a dedicated Gazer. I have no particular expertise and though I have been at it for around 17 years and 4 scopes later, I consider myself a Learner BIG TIME. Background: Royal Australian Navy, Professional Long Distance Driver conducting Coach Tours of Australia and am now enjoying my retirement, Computing, Star Gazing and my huge collection of Country (Outlaw) Music. I hope you can handle an Aussie in the mix - I certainly won't cause any pain for my part, Noel.
I especially like the 5th pic of the setup with the capture on the camera's LCD, really shows the accuracy and skill used to grab it from SO far away, the scale of that pic works really well.
Pair that pic with the main crossing pic and send it off, guaranteed it will get on APOD. Also, send it to AS&T, they'd love it.