Animation of bright ISS pass, 9Aug09

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi all,

Here is the animation of Sunday evening's ISS pass. This shows the brightness of the station better than the stacked image that I posted yesterday. Hope you like it!

The 1.7 mb file is here:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn311/stephenmudge/ISS-pass-9Aug09-small.gif
Cheers,
Stephen

[firstlight (Tony)]

Way cool, Stephen.

[hotspur (Chris)]

YEP,thats what i saw,excellent work stephen

I took a photo of a pass ,(not that one) with my camera piggy backed on telescope which was EQ mount tracking,i found the result of star and
ISS good,but i didnt like the way it was framed,obviously the camera was at angle etc.

Now i wonder if i got a tri-pod head attachment,and jigged around and made it so it attached to scope/mount,one could adjust camera to frame
pass with back drop more neatly framed,while the mount tracked sky and kept stars from trailing.

Doubtless someone has already done this,but i havent seen any results.

regards Chris

[IanL]

Very nice Stephen

Ian

[Spanrz (Brett)]

I just went out tonight, and seen a pass and finally learnt, what I have been trying to find out for many years. I watched the ISS go into darkness.

I watched it come basically overhead (with Laptop and StarryNight intow)
Took a grainy photo and a video seconds before it went into darkness.

From where I am 38 degrees south, the ISS stays in light for 93 minutes:30 sec (+/-30 secs). Unsure if latitude comes into play??

But finally for many years, I've wondered at what precise moment, does the ISS go into darkness. Now I know...... I WON!
This comes in handy for Shuttle missions too.
(but will only apply when shuttle is at the ISS's altitude. Lower altitude means shorter time from sunset)

So if a pass is over you, make sure it falls under 93 minutes from sunset.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by firstlight

Way cool, Stephen.

Thanks Tony!

Originally Posted by hotspur

Now i wonder if i got a tri-pod head attachment,and jigged around and made it so it attached to scope/mount,one could adjust camera to frame
pass with back drop more neatly framed,while the mount tracked sky and kept stars from trailing.

Doubtless someone has already done this,but i havent seen any results.

Thanks Chris. I remember someone posting a great tracked image of an ISS pass about a year ago, but I can't remember exactly how it was done. Most likely just a standard tracked widefield shot I imagine. I'm yet to get myself a mount that will handle the weight of a dSLR.
And thanks again for the invitation to your dark skies.

Originally Posted by IanL

Very nice Stephen

Ian

Thanks Ian, glad you like it!

Originally Posted by Spanrz

I just went out tonight, and seen a pass and finally learnt, what I have been trying to find out for many years. I watched the ISS go into darkness.

I watched it come basically overhead (with Laptop and StarryNight intow)
Took a grainy photo and a video seconds before it went into darkness.

From where I am 38 degrees south, the ISS stays in light for 93 minutes:30 sec (+/-30 secs). Unsure if latitude comes into play??

But finally for many years, I've wondered at what precise moment, does the ISS go into darkness. Now I know...... I WON!
This comes in handy for Shuttle missions too.
(but will only apply when shuttle is at the ISS's altitude. Lower altitude means shorter time from sunset)

So if a pass is over you, make sure it falls under 93 minutes from sunset.

93 minutes, that's interesting. I've never thought to measure it. I'm guessing it would change a littlre bit with latitude? Can't quite figure out how though.

Brett, Did you notice how the station reddens as it passes through the shadow of the atmosphere? I got a nice image of this last year.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Spanrz (Brett)]

Originally Posted by StephenM

Brett, Did you notice how the station reddens as it passes through the shadow of the atmosphere? I got a nice image of this last year.

Cheers,
Stephen

I watched the ISS come from the NW horizon, but didn't notice any dramatic change of colour. Deeply frustrating as it just rained a little while before the passover. The NW horizon was heavily clouded, but went to pristine clear overhead, go figure!

Though the colour went from more of a dull beige from the horizon, to a really bright white light seconds before it disappeared. I missed the split second disappearing act, as I was busy taking a photo and looking at the camera. But I'll check my photo. I'll see if I can post it up. Grainy though.
I checked heavensabove and it showed just after the highest altitude, it went into darkness, so the webpage is pretty spot on with it's data.

So the point of me taking the photo was about 3 seconds before, it went into darkness.
This 3 seconds was spent looking at the result on the camera, hence a "DOH" is recommended

Photos are negative and colour:
(Sorry for the poor grainy quality, iso @1600 for 8 sec with a FujiFilm S1000fd)
It does show the point of going into darkness, I'm shocked. And stoked. The hook at the top right, is me hitting the camera.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3553/...857c5a7f_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2664/...7bcbcae5_o.jpg

[Spanrz (Brett)]

Stephen,
I managed to get an ISS passover tonight. Out with the scope for a crack (after cleaning mirrors, yay)
Again, 30 minutes before passover, little or no cloud cloud, come ISS time, clouded over, jeeezzz
Melbourne weather is "check for clouds, 2 minutes before you use the scope", hahaha.

Anyway, up it came this time and was with an orange tinge to it, even at 25 degrees Alt.

After navigating the heavy to fine misty clouds, I got the ISS in the scope, jeez, fast moving bugger. Hahaha. I couldn't get much definition, as I was jittering around too much But finally got to see it through the 12".