ISS transit over Brisbane (27 frames) 6:40pm Wed 6th November

[Dennis]

After a failed attempt this morning at 3:46am due to cloud cover, I received a notification that the ISS was to make another transit over Brisbane at 6:40pm Wed 6th November.

Having had the failed run earlier in the morning, I was better prepared although thin clouds still marred the views.

Here is a composite of 27 frames taken as follows:

• Canon 7D fitted with 400mm F5.6L with Kenko Teleplus PRO 300 DGX 1.4x AF Teleconverter and Canon Extender x2 EF II giving an effective Focal Length of 1120mm at F16.

To minimise the effects of image blurring due to wild, unconstrained leaps of the camera/lens combo, I guessed an exposure of 1/000 sec at ISO1600 which was probably 2 or 3 stops under exposed once the results came in.

I’ve also included an image of the Moon taken with the same system, but at 1/160 sec although this has been down sampled, so the scale of the ISS and the Moon is greatly different.

Cheers

Dennis

[Derek Klepp]

Interesting Dennis i use the same combo on my 60D at times .Never thought to try for the ISS though. I use the combo for Sunrise/set distortions but find with just the 2x is a bit easier as less tracking.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Strewth Dennis, an invasion force of ISS's, top stuff.

Cheers
Trevor

[malau (David)]

I tried in last few night but failed. I couldnt get it focus correctly. May I know how did you focus ?

I have 600D with f/5 telescope

Thanks

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by Derek Klepp

Interesting Dennis i use the same combo on my 60D at times .Never thought to try for the ISS though. I use the combo for Sunrise/set distortions but find with just the 2x is a bit easier as less tracking.

Originally Posted by Quark

Strewth Dennis, an invasion force of ISS's, top stuff.

Cheers
Trevor

Thanks Derek and Trevor, I appreciate your comments.

It was nice to have a relatively large FOV but it was a pity that we had patchy cloud cover .

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by malau

I tried in last few night but failed. I couldnt get it focus correctly. May I know how did you focus ?

I have 600D with f/5 telescope

Thanks

Hi David

I used Live View on the rear LCD, zoomed in to x5 and manually focused on the Moon before the ISS appeared.

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman (Mike)]

Nice work D. More FL needed!

[malau (David)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi David

I used Live View on the rear LCD, zoomed in to x5 and manually focused on the Moon before the ISS appeared.

Cheers

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for the tip. I am just a beginner of astrophotography and I used Venus to focus few days ago

I will give it another shot tonight.

It moved too fast

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by iceman

Nice work D. More FL needed!

LOL! I was thinking of down shifting to a wide angle lens, to ease the tracking work load and reduce the strain!

Cheers

Dennis

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Cracking shots Dennis.

[von Tom (Tom)]

Excellent work Dennis - Especially given that cloud

Tom

[Dennis]

Thanks for the comments Jeanette and Tom, I appreciate them.

I have included a composite image cropped at full resolution which shows the relative size of the ISS compared to the crescent Moon.

The ISS “Fleet” reminds me of a swarm of fighters of the Starfleet Starfighter Corps belonging to the United Federation of Planets Starfleet Operational Forces.

Cheers

Dennis

[astronobob (Bob)]

Nice going Dennis wow, moon invasion, must be an Oasis there Great to have a go and get results like this, well done
I was half ready for it too, but cloud was very much a problem for the scope