ISS Transit – 21 frame collage from 24th June 2011

[Dennis]

Hello,

I was stoked to be able to record a transit of the International Space Station across the face of the Sun on Friday, 24th June 2011 at 12:47pm. Tom first alerted me to the transit (thanks Tom!) which saw me setting up at the Foreshore Park at Cleveland.

As this would be my first attempt at recording an ISS transit, I was not expecting too much, treating the outing as a dress rehearsal in planning, logistics and setting up at a mobile location. Tom arrived some 10 minutes before the event and proceeded to set up his gear – now that guy is cool, he appeared unhurried and unflustered!

At the appointed sub-second, it all happened so quickly. It was fortunate that on the Canon 7D, I did do a dry run a few minutes before the event to discover that the “first” press of the “Movie” button ONLY locked up the mirror! It required a “second” press to begin recording then a “third” press to halt recording. Without this test, I would have pressed it once, waited and missed the event….

According to Google Earth, I was some 160 metres from the centreline.

It was good to finally meet Tom and I would like to thank him for posting the recent details about the ISS transits visible from Brisbane.

Thanks for looking!

Dennis

[multiweb (Marc)]

Wow! That's excellent Dennis. Very sharp too. Bull'seye

[sheeny (Al)]

As usual Dennis, you don't muck about doing half a job! Nice and sharp, no dropped frames, excellent!

So when can we expect the animation???

Imaging the ISS I think is pretty much the dynamic end of astrophotography. It does get hectic doesn't it?

Al.

[iceman (Mike)]

Brilliant Dennis, just brilliant.

I wish you had a massive solar Ha scope

[StarsInMyEyes (Peter)]

WOW, what a fantastic image. Nice and sharp.



Peter

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Great image Dennis. Well done.

[von Tom (Tom)]

Fabulous image Dennis - excellent detail! It was good to meet you too.
I'm glad you could be there and glad you did that dry run! I've attached a shot of this afternoon's scene I hope you don't mind, it was almost a perfect day and perfect setting.

Cheers,

Tom

[hickny (Peter)]

Wow!

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

That's awesome Dennis!
Very very happy for you!

[Peter Ward]

Excellent capture!

[Derek Klepp]

Great Dennis thanks for the pics.

[h0ughy (David)]

awesome big D

[cookie8 (Vincent)]

Just simply awesome 10/10!!

[davewaldo]

Nice one Dennis! I'd love to see higher res. You've got some great detail there!

[Quark (Trevor)]

Dennis......that is just so cool mate, bloody brilliant!!!!

Extremely well done.
Regards
Trevor

[Liz]

Wonderful image Dennis, well done!! You guys certainly had a nice little spot there by the water.

[Rob_K]

Stunning!

Cheers -

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

excellent image, well done... I can see this sort of imaging will become more seen as more people realise they can also capture this event, by using equipment they may already have. Thanks again for sharing...

[Dennis]

Hello,

Thank you everyone for your words of appreciation, this has been an exciting project!

I have added an updated image where I have attempted to tease out some detail on the solar disc, hopefully not at the expense to too much noise. It was a difficult challenge with only 21 frames to play with.

I have also included an inset image, which is a full resolution crop from the original 1920x1080 frame, showing the apparent size of the ISS in the full frame.

Cheers

Dennis

PS – thanks Tom, for posting the photo of our bay side location within the ground track of the ISS!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

How cool is that??? Fantastic Dennis. Amazing resolution