Observation by Chris Hooker: International Space Station, 30th March ...
Uploaded by
Chris Hooker
Observer
Chris Hooker
Observed
2019 Mar 30 - 19:59
Uploaded
2019 Mar 31 - 07:17
Objects
Spacecraft
Equipment
- 25 cm Newtonian
- x2 Barlow
- ZWO ASI120MM-S camera
Exposure
0.32 milliseconds
Location
Didcot, Oxfordshire
Target name
International Space Station
Title
International Space Station, 30th March 2019
About this image
This is a single frame from a long video recorded during an overhead pass of the ISS. I was using a new tracking technique which for some reason missed the target most of the time, but nevertheless yielded this image near the midpoint of the pass. The image is noisy but still shows a fair amount of detail in the structure of the Space Station.
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Comments
That is a remarkable image, Chris
Thanks, Jeremy. If the tracking had worked properly I would have been able to stack a few similar images, which would have reduced the noise and allowed a bit of sharpening. Next time . . .
Hi Chris, great image and thank you for sharing.
My question is how would one go about tracking the ISS to capture images for stacking?
John
Hi John,
Presumably you are talking about manual tracking. Various people, especially Thierry Legault, have achieved exceptional results with automated tracking. In summary, I use a piggybacked 66mm William Optics refractor with a crosswire eyepiece, which is co-aligned with the main telescope. I attach a handle to the back of the tube of the Newtonian, to give myself more control. When the ISS appears I start recording, and try to move the telescope to keep it on the crosswire of the piggybacked scope. As you can imagine, this is not easy, and the proportion of frames that have anything in them is small. The main difficulty is that the angular speed of the ISS varies continually, so one is never moving the telescope at a constant speed.
If you'd like to know more details I'm happy to share them by email if you drop me a line. chrishooker1<at>virginmedia.com
Chris
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