International Space Station, Brisbane 12th June 2025
I received an e-mail notification from the NASA alert service for the International Space Station, informing me that we would enjoy a pass of the ISS over Brisbane this evening at 18:02pm AEST.
I set up the Celestron C9.25 telescope and fitted the Canon EOS R5 Mk II and hoped that my alignment was good from the other night, as there would not be time to run my Alignment Routines before the pass.
I plonked the telescope mount down on the 3 concrete pavers, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
I managed to get 10 frames with the ISS and this is the best one.
Thanks Peter, yes I did although I had to figure it out on the fly as I had forgotten how to set it up!
The mount (MX+) placed the ISS towards the very top of the EOS R5 frame for 10 of the frames and the rest were all blank as I did not perform the usual set up routines.
The Sky X pro reports the R5 FOV as 55’ x 35’ which hopefully would keep the ISS in the frame for longer the next time, provided I run a T-Point and Polar Alignment beforehand.
Cheers
Dennis
Quote:
Originally Posted by peter_4059
Great stuff Dennis. Did you have the mount tracking the ISS path?
Thanks Leo, the MX+ Mount does all the heavy lifting!
I used the Canon EOS Utility to view a x15 magnified image on the Notebook PC, with a Bahtinov Mask fitted to the C9.25, so was able to find a good focus literally 5 mins before the ISS was due to appear.
Then EOS Utility would not respond so I reverted to Plan B as I had the Canon Remote Release Cable plugged into the R5.
I whipped the USB3 Cable out of the R5 body and pressed the shutter release cable and Voilà, the gods smiled on me and gave me 10 frames.
Cheers
Dennis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leo.G
That looks AMAZING Dennis and I'm guessing a lot easier to find than the grain of space sand you posted in another thread.
You must have great sight.
Pardon my ignorance I couldn't remember what it was but I know it is beyond my capabilities no matter which cosmos I live in.
The Canons appear to be very, very good in the dark.
I had a long term 5D original loan unit from a friend who had a Mk4 as well but I also had a collection of old Nikon lenses from my 35mm days so picking up a Nikon full frame made good sense to me and I scored a bargain on a near new condition used D810 full frame.
Sadly the Nikon isn't a patch on the Canon when it comes to low light, certainly not with the live view (images are great if I can find focus), I get nothing but noise and I'm not the only D810 owner to notice it either but there seems to be no answers or solution for the issue. A secondary screen is of no benefit sadly, I own a heap of larger usable screens for the purpose.
I could zoom into the Milky Way with live view on my friends Canon 5D original with live view and get perfect focus every time.
Quote:
Focus Peaking and Zoom: The Canon 5D’s live view mode includes focus peaking and zoom functions, which assist in achieving sharp focus. Focus peaking highlights in-focus areas with a colored outline, while zoom allows for precise adjustment of the focus point.
Damn, I had no idea about the focus peaking function, after reading about it I'm upset my Nikon doesn't have an equivalent type feature.
EDIT: I'm wrong, the original didn't have live view, it must have been the Mk4 I loved that on but the original was a lot easier to focus in the dark than my D810.
Same friend loaned me his Mk4 for a few weeks and was upset when I turned down his offer of a huge 800mm lens he'd paid $20,000 for new.
"Thanks mate and I'd love to play with it in your presence one night but I won't take it myself".
I guess it shows a level of trust but I was terrified, I wanted to bring it home and play. The mk 4 5D is a delightful camera but as mentioned, huge collection of older Nikon lenses (which worked on the Canon with an adapter) but I decided it made sense to stick with Nikon.
Some days (nights actually) I kick myself.....
I could have kept the 5D original here for as long as I liked or bought it very cheap but I'm a Mega pixel hog it seems.
I should ask if he still has the original 5D and if so how much he wants for it, I have spare zoom lenses and the adapter.....
I know that feeling, I used to shoot Zenit then Praktica then Pentax but made the move to Canon with the 40D before I had accumulated too much Pentax gear.
They all originally used the M42 threaded lenses till Pentax went to the K mount. I have at least one old Zenit (partial) and maybe a few Praktica's in my collection (I forget, too much junk).
I love how simple the shutter is on my baby Brownie though, just sayin', lol.
Thanks for all the comments, folks, I appreciate them.
I managed to find 3 frames that I could stack which has slightly improved the image quality and allowed me to boost the colour saturation and up sample by x2.
For info, this was with the Celestron C9.25 F10 Edge HD at the prime focus using a Canon EOS R5 Mk II.
ISO 3200 at 1/2000 sec.
I have also inserted a screen shot of the Histogram from Lightroom.
Wow what an awesome catch and grouse image Dennis, very impressive if I may say so, mate, I used to catch the odd ISS, but by hand the crude way, haha, I know the challenge and the pressure one faces when you only have one chance, well, one every month or three, and that's if the clouds play ball, but at the time I reckon every 5 seconds goes by only takes 1 second in reality..
Top Stuff Dennis, I'll keep an eye out for any more from you, speshly interested with the mount prepped properly beforehand..
Cheers ..
I have to carry out and set up the tripod and Paramount MX+ each session, which requires a couple of alignment procedures.
I have x3 circular 12-inch dia. concrete pavers sunk into the garden lawn, so when I plonk the tripod down, I am usually roughly polar aligned.
Then I run an automated T-Point Model. This is a routine in The Sky X Pro (TSX) which slews the mount/OTA to several regions of the sky (user selectable) and then takes an image to compare where the ‘scope is pointing vs where The Sky “thinks” it is pointing and notes any variation.
I usually select up to 120 Points which takes approx. 30 mins to run, but I can do this in twilight so you don’t really lose any decent dark sky imaging time.
Using these results, The Sky X Pro creates a “Model” of the mount’s pointing errors, thus drastically improving the MX+ pointing performance and tracking performance.
I then run an Accurate Polar Alignment (APA) Routine which takes a couple of minutes, and the MX+ is then ready to go.
I finally touch up focus with TSX @Focus3 Routine and then off we go.
This set up procedure can take up to 40 mins and because the ISS usually appears at dusk, I cannot run these in time for an ISS pass, so I just have to plonk the tripod down on the pavers, fit the OTA and hope that the tear down from the previous night and new set up did not affect the alignment too much.
In TSX you can download the ISS orbital elements (a fresh set) close to the pass and then command the MX+ to Slew To and Track the ISS when the ISS rises. It is a fun thing to watch this happen.
Any mount mis-alignment means that the ISS will not be in the FOV, hence the importance of T-Point and APA.
Dennis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by astronobob
Wow what an awesome catch and grouse image Dennis, very impressive if I may say so, mate, I used to catch the odd ISS, but by hand the crude way, haha, I know the challenge and the pressure one faces when you only have one chance, well, one every month or three, and that's if the clouds play ball, but at the time I reckon every 5 seconds goes by only takes 1 second in reality..
Top Stuff Dennis, I'll keep an eye out for any more from you, speshly interested with the mount prepped properly beforehand..
Cheers ..
