Saturday, September 12, 2009

That's no moon, that's a space station!

I think I used that title before, but it works. The ISS flew over my house at about 7:48pm. It was really tough since the sun had just gone down, and I had to find a star to focus on. Jupiter could be seen, but was behind a bush. Synced the scope on the estimated Jupiter location, then slewed to Vega. Found it pretty close, so used it to focus with a few seconds to spare. Bahtinov mask is a true lifesaver!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is incredible! I've been trying to capture an image of my own. I have a few on blog where you can make out the shape but nothing to this extreme. I always enjoy looking at these kinds of photos. Being able to see it 220 miles above still amazes me!

Tom said...

It takes some practice, and lots of passes that you don't get anything but a little smear. I still get good shots only about every 1 out of 3 passes. This was a lucky one since I nearly ran out of time finding something to focus on. Found Vega and used that with about 1 minute to spare!
Here are more on my website.

-Tom

hornbill said...

I have always dreamt of photographing a satellite or spacecraft...how did you do it ?

My blog is at :

hornbill-hornbill.blogspot.com

Tom said...

Hornbill,
Check out my page here, at the bottom I have a description on how I do it.
I have some software that will guide the telescope, but it's been frustrating to learn since I get so few good chances, that I'm not confident enough to trust the computer yet. I still aim the scope by hand! :-)

Tom