[cucmbere (Bob)]

Hi,

The next morning I was up to see a double moon shadow transit on Jupiter which was impressive. Early that morning a couple of friends of mine and I decided to go on a fishing trip for 3 days to the Murray so I did not get a chance to use my scope on the ISS but we did see the flybys from there(Robinvale). The times and location of the ISS were the same for Melbourne even though Robinvale is approximately 500km north-north west!

As you may well know, Heavens-Above.com diplays a star chart with stars to mag. 6 and a track layer of the ISS. I use that chart in conjuction with a planetarium program, TheSky6 in my case to verify the fanter stars in the E.P. and the exact location of the ISS path. Positioning the scope to the exact spot that the ISS will cross was not that difficult because I knew the track would pass between 2 stars which I have chosen to place the scope.

The heavens above star chart is not too crude because it shows tick marks every 2 degrees of Declination which is like some wide field e.p`s. and in my case with the 12mm e.p.(137x and 37'FOV) I had to zero in the scope which is why I prefer to also use a planetarium program.

I must admit that zeroing in the scope within half a degree or less involves some time and probably luck because there is definately some possibilty of error. This is because of the crudeness of the given star chart on the aforementioned website. Take for example tonights event. The ISS will pass between 2 stars of mag. 3 one third the distance of the more easterly star. These two stars are seperated a little more than 2 degrees but with no reference stars in between the two stars how can it be measured accurately the exact location the ISS will pass?. Or some seconds later down the track it(ISS) will pass within(I guess) 10 arcmin of a mag. 6 star which itself is just 3 degrees of a mag. 1 star so finding it should be easy. That would be a safer bet and a greater chance of seeing it in a higher power e.p. and smaller FOV.

There are many good oportunities. Time will tell.


Bob.

P.S. How was the fishing? Very dissapointing with little to no action!