ISS Transit of the Moon – Brisbane 21st Nov 2015 7:35:59pm

[Dennis]

Decided to set up despite the draining effects of a 35º C day.:)

C9.26, x0.63 R/F, Canon 7D Mk II. Tak Mewlon 180 F12, Tal x1.6 Extender, ASI 174MM ccd camera. Both mounted side-by-side on a Tak EM200 Mount.

The hi-res shot is a composite of the Raw ISS Frames and an aligned/stacked Moon background as processed in Autostakkert!2, using Layer Masks in CS6. This is why the single frame ISS images look rough, whereas the Moon BG looks smoother.

The transit lasted some 0.49 seconds so it was a bit tricky choosing the optimum moment to trip the 7D Mk II which can shoot at 10 fps, whilst remembering to start recording with the ASI 174MM all whilst eye balling the ISS through the C9.25 finder scope. Not to mention fighting off the mossies.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[deanm]

Damn-well done!

Dean

[CJ]

Wow!

[RB]

Incredible, as always.
You never cease to amaze Dennis !

:)

[h0ughy]

totally excellent dude -

you are the master of the universe Dennis!!!

[Kunama]

Fantastic images Dennis :thumbsup:

[Derek Klepp]

Well worth the logistics and the mozzies Dennis.I like the full disc take.

[Dennis]

Thanks for the comments folks, much appreciated.:)

Channelling Mr H0ughy with his famous, complex, multi-instrument set ups, here is a wide field result with a 5D Mk III and 400mm F5.6L mounted on a tripod with shots taken every 1 second.

My biggest fear was bumping the array of instruments as I moved between them to start the 3 sets of captures at T-10sec, T-5sec and T-0.5 sec.

Cheers

Dennis

[astroron]

Brilliant work as usual Dennis.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[peter_4059]

Amazing stuff Dennis. I had a try at capturing it pass by the moon but missed it completely :(

[astro_south]

Your shots through the Tak are just superb Dennis!!!

[Nino]

Great shot Dennis, I got clouded out. Cheers Alpha Pavo

[firstlight]

I'm in awe as always of your skill and dedication. Would you consent to have some of your shots included in the BAS Observer? Darryl would be stoked to receive some images from you... looks like a cover shot to me.

Cheers
Tony

[acropolite]

:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown: Amazing images Dennis.

[Dennis]

Hi Ron

Thanks and great to hear from you.:)

I must say I was a little rusty after a bit of a break from setting up and using the gear, but a new ASI 174MM CCD camera inspired me to get outdoors again.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

HI Peter

Sorry to hear of your miss.:(

I used Friday night as a dress rehearsal in setting up the gear and jotting down a procedure which helped me cope with the rush of activities as the ISS approached the Moon on Sat.

Without the dry run on Friday to establish the equipment configurations and capture settings, plus the note taking, it is likely that I would have missed the event as it happened sooo quickly.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Hi Andrew

Thanks for your comments. The Raw single frame shots of the Moon BG were quite grainy (as expected) but it’s incredible what AutoStakkert!2 can do!

Loved the 1920x1200 pixels of the ASI 174MM.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Hey John

Great to hear from you and thanks. Some 30 mins before the transit, a few clouds began to appear although luckily, they held off until after the event.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Tony, good to hear from you.

When I first looked at the ground track on Thursday, it missed my back yard by a whisker but by Friday, it had shifted about ¼ degree south. And no, I didn’t put in a request for a trajectory changing burn…:lol:

No problems with the BAS Newsletter, I would be honoured to grace the pages of such an esteemed journal.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Phil, after several failed attempts, it was good to have clear skies for this event, albeit with rather warm temperatures.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Suzy]

Phoarwwww I'm speechless :scared2::scared2::scared2:

Just shared on our facebook page :).

[astroron]

Glad to see you back in the swing of things Dennis :)
Hope to catch up again one day.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[SkyWatch]

That looks amazing. Well done Dennis!!!

[iceman]

Wow Dennis, you are still amazing.. even after all these years ;)

Incredible shots.

[jjjnettie]

:) Once again you've humbled us all with your skills. An exquisitely detailed capture.
thank you for sharing it with us. :)

[Suzy]

IIS Image Of The Week I say :D oh yes, yes! :jump:
Sheeesh rather confusing IIS... ISS my typing fingers keep tripping :lol:.

[astroron]

Should be a shoe in Suzy. :D
Cheers:thumbsup:

[ags_]

Wonderful sets Dennis, I was going to try this one day but I'll leave it to you the master has set the bar far too high! I'm about to take my 174mm off and replace it with a imx252 it's been a beauty but will now be permanently on the Lunt where it also does a superb job.

Cheers, Phil

[Dennis]

Thanks Ron, would be great to catch up again, either at your place on a dark weekend or at an astrofest.:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thank you Suzy, I appreciate that gesture, although I don’t have a Facebook account, or Twitter. Come to think of it, we don’t even have mobile ‘phones, (never had one), that’s how unconnected we are!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Dean, I appreciate your comments.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Mike, the ASI 174MM made this so much easier than my long gone ToUcam. Ah, the good old days eh!;)

Hope you are your family are all well.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Jeanette, it was good to have it go over our back garden; it made the set up so much more convenient. And the weather gods smiled on me, just!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[RickS]

Plenty of comments already and nothing much left to say... but bloody well done anyway, Dennis :thumbsup: :)

[Dennis]

Thanks Phil, that looks an interesting camera, a 5 MPixel Sony Pregius sensor is a 2/3” with a 3.45 µm pixel size that can run at up to 100 fps in 12-bit mode or 150 fps in 8-bit mode.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Rick, good to be back in the saddle once more.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[N1]

APOD material and considerably more impressive than the other ISS shot that went slightly viral a while ago (as did the colour in that pic - what was that about anyway?). The phase angle in these images here is a fair bit below 180° which adds a lot of depth to them.

Admirable. :thumbsup:

I wonder whether a 3D anaglyph using 2 consecutive frames would work. Should come out quite nice.

[Dennis]

Thanks for the comments Mirko, I appreciate them.

One of the (local) IIS members, Tom Harradine (http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=120170&PHPSESSID=thffmq0ud9hlumhda6fj8t04f 6), also posted an excellent capture of this event on SpaceWeather (http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=120170&PHPSESSID=thffmq0ud9hlumhda6fj8t04f 6). From his suburb in Brisbane, the ISS passed north of the crater Copernicus whereas from my location, the ISS passed south of the crater. Just shows how these close-to-Earth events are dramatically affected by parallax.

I understand that the ground track was a mere 7kms wide.

Cheers

Dennis

[H.Treur]

Fantastic result!
Wanted to see it passing the moon from Tambourine, but at that moment I was not in the position to watch.
As i understand from the replies, the parallax would have caused the ISS not to cross the moon (seen from Tambourine), am I correct ?

Anyway, I enjoy your pictures very much. Thank you.

[beren]

:thumbsup: Awesome work Dennis

[Domol]

Brilliantly executed!
... but don't forget the aerogard - tropical strength in your case (lol)

[graham.hobart]

Bravo Dennis! Great shots

[Dennis]

The ground track in this case was approx. 7kms wide. The original notification had the track some 3kms to the NE of me, just skimming the lunar limb from our back garden.

NASA must have performed a few mid-course corrections or orbital burns, as when I next checked on Friday, I was only a few hundred metres from the centre line.

So you are correct, you would have had a close pass of a few degrees at Mt Tamborine, but no transit.:(

Your skies would have been much darker though!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Stuart, it took a few hours for the adrenalin to wash out of my system that night!

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Domenic and Graham, I appreciate your comments.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Okay folks, here is a 1920x1200 pixel animation (https://www.dropbox.com/s/13elye4tfro4hec/ISS-Lunar-Transit-21Nov2015-Brisbane-D-SImmons.gif?dl=0). (approx. 1.1MB).

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny]

I always love your work, Dennis! Superb as always!

Al.

[Renato]

Now that's the best shot I have seen of the ISS from a ground based telescope!
Congratulations.

[johnnyjetski]

Dennis,
An amazing job. I echo Renatos comment. Its the best shot Ive seen of the ISS from a ground based scope.
Clarity is amazing, considering speed and exposure time needed.

Professional quality result. Well done!

JohnS

[gary]

Brilliant Dennis!

Best Regards

Gary

[tel.lekatsas]

The level of detail is extraordinary. Well done!

[iceman]

This is now Image of the Week (http://www.iceinspace.com.au)! Nicely done again, Dennis.

[LucasB]

As others have said already, this is the best shot I have even seen of the ISS from earth also. Mind blowing! Take a bow, Dennis!
Lucas

[Retrograde]

Exquisite!

[multiweb]

Sub zero cool Dennis. What a corker! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Albert van Duin]

Hi Dennis,

Great images! I can't believe it has been 9 years since I attended the QLD Astrofest...

Regards,
Albert van Duin

http://www.astrobin.com/users/Albert_van_Duin/

[deanm]

In sleepy Adelaide tomorrow (Thursday 26th), we have a solar disc transit (thanks for heads-up, Ian!)

http://astroblogger.blogspot.com.au/

As luck would have it, I'm a (defeating) few km away from centreline (& we will all probably be clouded out, anyway..!)

Dean

[Dennis]

Thanks Al, nothing like a sub-second event to get the heart racing!:)



Thanks Renato, I appreciate your comments.:)



Thanks John, I appreciate your comments. I look forward to the next event!:thumbsup:



Thanks Gary, to the naked eye, as I watched the dot of the ISS approaching the Moon, it looked like it was a near miss so I was relieved when I reviewed the images.:D



Thanks Tel, I appreciate your comments.



Thanks Mike, I appreciate that. I should thank NASA for its orbital burn, bringing the transit to my back garden. 3 days prior, it was a near-miss.:)



Thanks Lucas, I appreciate your comments.



Thanks Pete, I appreciate your comments.



Thanks Marc, I appreciate your comments.



Thanks Albert, I appreciate your comments and wow, was it all of 9 years ago! Good to hear from you.

Cheers

Dennis

[Quark]

Most excellent work Dennis, TOP STUFF.

Cheers
Trevor

[Dennis]

Thanks Trevor, I appreciate your comments. Would have loved your 16” for this series!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate your comments.:)

Just to clarify, the Moon background is a stack using AutoStakkert2! as I had several frames from the avi and that is why it is nice and smooth.

However, the ISS images are all as captured; there is only 1 of each so they are the raw component.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[strongmanmike]

Great result Denis, I really like the close up with the Luna terrain behind :thumbsup:

Mike

[FlashDrive]

That's Brilliant ....:thumbsup:

What a Catch...

Col...

[Dennis]

Thanks Mike. Unlike you deep space folks, no time for relaxing and kicking back in a deck chair, sipping your beverage of choice whilst gazing at the Milky Way.;)

This was all over in less than 1 second!:)

Cheers

Dennis




Thanks Col, I appreciate your comments.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[hulloleeds]

Great stuff

This is my brother's video we took

Your version is superior, though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpOfJ2Qz4sk

[Dennis]

Great work and nicely presented. I’ve now seen 3 recording of this event from Brisbane and in each one, the apparent position of the ISS relative to the crater Copernicus varies quite significantly due to the effect of parallax.

Cheers

Dennis

[telecasterguru]

Brilliant

[prokyon]

Brilliant, never seen before in such a high quality!

[Dennis]

Thank you Frank and Werner, I appreciate your comments.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[pluto]

Wow, that is stunning! Well done!! :eyepop: