We just had a magnificent ISS pass over Sydney/Central Coast/Newcastle area..
Mag -2.5, passing almost directly overhead. I had the camera on the EQ6 to take a widefield image, and the 12" on the dob base with the 2x barlow and DMK21AU04 to capture some up close images.
Man it was a hectic lead-up, a comedy of errors and trying to get the finderscope aligned in time, a test-shot on the 350D with noise-reduction on only just finished before the ISS cleared the trees (it was already almost overhead by the time it came into view), fired off the long-exposure, ran over to the dob to find it in the finderscope, started manually panning to keep it on the crosshairs, DOH forgot to press record in IC-Capture, start recording and spend about a minute trying to get the bright light in the crosshairs!
Out of the 5 minutes of pass, I only captured about 1 minute of it due to trees in the NW direction (where it came from) and the SE direction (where it headed to), so I only got the clear sky overhead.
But, I got some. Thanks to the 60fps of the DMK21AU04, it was able to capture a lot of frames (almost 3000) and there's definitely some ISS on them!
I haven't finished going through them all, or doing any post-processing, stacking etc. But here's one random frame I just found.
Man what a buzz!
We've got an even better pass (for me) tomorrow night (27th), and another like tonight on the 28th! It's gonna be a busy 3 nights if the skies stay clear!
Had a bit of a go as well with the D200 hanging out in the breeze off the scope. Must have looked pretty silly chasing the station across the heavens looking through the telrad while rattling off shots with the remote.
Shot with the D200 using a GSO 32mm camera projection eyepiece and GSO 3x barlow. Focused on Rigel and guessed the exposure. 160/sec. iso-1000.
Came out better than what was expected.
Can't wait to try again.
There was another pass at 5:25am this morning that I was hoping to catch.. I left the scope out all night, wasn't expecting any bad weather.. and after putting Eliza back in bed at 1:30am, it started to rain!
I rushed outside and had to quickly pack up the essentials (laptop, camera etc) and throw a tarp over the rest. Man how frustrating!
The Berries (dad plus three kiddies) enjoyed the ISS passover last night, too!
Did others see the very bright satellite which passed over the Central Coast perhaps 10 minutes before the ISS? It was so bright that we thought it WAS the ISS until shortly afterwards the main event appeared!
I lined up the ISS in the finder of the Mary Rose, and only caught a fleeting sight of the ISS through the 22 Pan. I thought I could see some of the shape of the ISS, but to be honest it was so bright, I could not be certain that the shape was just glare.
Anyway, the kids loved it too. Noah got to try out his new 15x70 binos (courtesy of AOE and the IIS third birthday competition!). We scanned the heavens, and Noah had an opportunity to enjoy the Seven Sisters, M42, NGC 2516, the Tarantula etc through the binos. He went to bed about 10pm saying something to the effect, "That was great observing with you dad! Astronomy is one of my favourite things. Astronomy and maths!" I wonder if an astrophysicist is in the making????
We just had a magnificent ISS pass over Sydney/Central Coast/Newcastle area..
Mag -2.5, passing almost directly overhead. I had the camera on the EQ6 to take a widefield image, and the 12" on the dob base with the 2x barlow and DMK21AU04 to capture some up close images.
Man it was a hectic lead-up, a comedy of errors and trying to get the finderscope aligned in time, a test-shot on the 350D with noise-reduction on only just finished before the ISS cleared the trees (it was already almost overhead by the time it came into view), fired off the long-exposure, ran over to the dob to find it in the finderscope, started manually panning to keep it on the crosshairs, DOH forgot to press record in IC-Capture, start recording and spend about a minute trying to get the bright light in the crosshairs!
Out of the 5 minutes of pass, I only captured about 1 minute of it due to trees in the NW direction (where it came from) and the SE direction (where it headed to), so I only got the clear sky overhead.
But, I got some. Thanks to the 60fps of the DMK21AU04, it was able to capture a lot of frames (almost 3000) and there's definitely some ISS on them!
I haven't finished going through them all, or doing any post-processing, stacking etc. But here's one random frame I just found.
Man what a buzz!
We've got an even better pass (for me) tomorrow night (27th), and another like tonight on the 28th! It's gonna be a busy 3 nights if the skies stay clear!
There was another pass at 5:25am this morning that I was hoping to catch.. I left the scope out all night, wasn't expecting any bad weather.. and after putting Eliza back in bed at 1:30am, it started to rain!
I rushed outside and had to quickly pack up the essentials (laptop, camera etc) and throw a tarp over the rest. Man how frustrating!
This weather is crazy!
Nearly caught me out as well.
Fortunately I was still out and saw it coming and got every thing under cover with moments to spare.
I was out last night under the best skies I had ever seen . Stars near the horizon were hardly twinkling. There was no wind and not a single cloud.
At around 9:30pm there was a very bright fast moving object that was moving from North to South. I'm not sure if I was looking at the ISS. I aimed the scope at the object and had a very short glimpse at it. It appeared to be an orangey silver colour.
Was I looking at the ISS?
BTW great image Mike. Can't wait for your final image.
WOW What an ISS pass (sample image included)
. Stars near the horizon were hardly twinkling. There was no wind and not a single cloud. 
Can't wait for your final image.
