ISS Lunar Transit

[sheeny]

I just received this alert from Calsky! Wish me luck!

Tuesday 6 January 2009
19h47m53.58s
ISS (http://www.calsky.com/csrender.cgi?object=Satellite&number=11&obs=30231987249954&tdt=2454837.86729577&sat=25544&ra=2.38310602&de=20.51576780&fovarcmin=60&interval=0.00011574&step=0.00000231&satrend=) Crosses the disk of Moon. Separation=0.119° Position Angle=325.5°. Transit duration=0.89s
Angular diameter=30.6" size=73.0m x 44.5m x 27.5m
Satellite at Azimuth= 9.0° N Altitude= 35.1° Distance=604.5 km Magnitude=-3.5mag
In a clock-face concept, the satellite will seem to move toward 4:25
Angular Velocity=32.4'/s

Centerline (http://www.calsky.com/?Transitline=&obs=30231987249954&tdt=2454837.86729577&sat=25544&interval=0.00011574&step=0.00000231&mainbody=10), closest point (http://www.calsky.com/csrender.cgi?object=Satellite&number=11&obs=30231987249954&tdt=2454837.86729577&sat=25544&ra=2.38310602&de=20.51576780&fovarcmin=60&interval=0.00011574&step=0.00000231&satrend=&lon=149.869891088&lat=-33.75860308) →Map (http://www.calsky.com/map.php?lang=en&latitude=-33.75860308&longitude=149.86989109&zoom=8): Longitude=149°52'12" E Latitude=-33°45'31" (WGS84) Distance=1.77 km Azimuth=311.0° NW Path direction= 41.5° NE ground speed=7.856 km/s width=17.0 km max. duration=1.0 s
Sun elevation=+4° Elongation from Sun=114°
Time uncertainty of about 6 seconds

Looking forward to this. I hope my mount is fixed. I hope the skies are clear. I hope I don't stuff it up! :lol:

Al.

[Dennis]

Hi Al

If anyone can do it, you can! Good luck!

Cheers

Dennis

[gmbfilter]

Who said January is boring?

[sheeny]

Have a look at the Centreline link guys. It passes right over Lithgow. Anyone close to Lithgow might like to set up to view / image as well.

Al.

[mozzie]

thanks al heres hoping for a clear night
mozzie

[okiscopey]

Al, thanks for the info.

I'd like to confirm the times quoted are Eastern Australian Summer Time, and that 'width = 17.0km' means that anyone more than 8.5km outside the centreline will miss out.

I'm keen to catch this visually ... photo would be a bit of a challenge at this stage!

(Ignore attached picture ... uploaded in error )

[RB]

Luck !

:)

[Rob_K]

Good luck Al, and thanks for the heads-up! :thumbsup:

Last night, the ISS passed close to the Moon & Venus, viewed from my place. Tried to get some short subs without burning out the Moon, but ended up way underexposing the ISS. However, salvaged something with a composite by layering a stack of the original subs with a stack of subs with levels raised horrendously. :P Pic attached.

Cheers -

[iceman]

Nice one Rob and good luck Al!

Al, do the CalSky ISS lunar/solar transit emails come with a different subject from the normal ISS alert ones?

[sheeny]

Yeah, it's a separate search, Mike.

Al.

[Matty P]

Good luck Al! Looking forward to seeing the results. :)

Hope you get clear skies for the passing.

:thumbsup:

[sheeny]

Well... Luck didn't help! I guess there's no substitute for skill...

:lol:

I got set up with the Oly E-510 with 140-300 lens piggy backed on the C8 with the DMK running at 60 FPS at f/10. The weather was clear and hot, but the seeing very ordinary.

From the Calsky page I worked out the ISS was going to pass very close to Lalande crater so I centred the scope on that.

Checked and double checked the focus on the E-510 and then switched it off till close to transit time.

That was about the extent of things going right...:whistle::lol:.

45 seconds before transit I switched on the E-510 and started capturing at 3 fps.... it didn't go too long before the buffer was full and it was back down to chugging away at about 1 per second.:doh:

I had deliberately chosen to use live view so the mirror wouldn't be flopping up and down in the E-510... well there must be something else mechanically moving around in there because every time it took a shot the video from the DMK was moved.:rolleyes:

Too late to do anything about it by that stage, just persevere!:whistle:

Well, I played the AVI from the DMK (2076 frames) and couldn't see the ISS, so I looked at every frome individually... no ISS:sadeyes:... oh, well... there's always the stills from the DSLR...

Well, they were in focus enough to recognise that it was the moon that was out of focus:P:lol:... I persevered... I looked though them all... no smudges even remotely like an ISS... I don't know what happened to change focus...:shrug:... my test shots were sharp!

Oh well... it was a learning experience.

Next time the E-510 goes on a separate tripod.:thumbsup:

Maybe I'll try the f/6.3 reducer on the C8 and the DMK until I have some success at finding where the ISS will pass:shrug:.

There's always next time!:lol::whistle:

Al.

[Dennis]

Hi Al

You chose to image the ISS transiting the moon. You chose to image the ISS in this pass and do the other things, not because it was easy, but because it was hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of your energies and skills, because that challenge is one that you were willing to accept, one you were unwilling to postpone, and one which you intend to complete, and the others, too. :whistle:;):lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny]

:rofl:
Very good, Dennis!

I guess I had my Apollo 13 first up!:lol:

Al.

[Dennis]

Yes – but remember, “Failure is not an option”…:whistle:;):lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny]

It wasn't... It was a successful failure! I learned something, and was able to walk away at the end...:whistle:

Al.