Observation by Chris Hooker: ISS lunar transit, 31st March 2020

Uploaded by

Chris Hooker

Observer

Chris Hooker

Observed

2020 Mar 31 - 19:47

Uploaded

2020 Apr 01 - 17:42

Objects

Spacecraft
The Moon

Equipment

254 mm Newtonian
2x & 1.6x Barlows, stacked
ZWO ASI174 mono camera
Baader IR-cut filter

Exposure

0.18 msec

Location

Didcot, Oxfordshire

Target name

International Space Station

Title

ISS lunar transit, 31st March 2020

About this image

The ISS pass on 31st March was predicted to transit the first-Quarter Moon at 20.47 pm. Tracking the pass allowed me to capture a few frames with the ISS against the Moon as a background, and those frames have been combined into this mosaic. The ISS was sunlit at the time, so rather than being a pure silhouette, it shows contrasting detail. The solar arrays are almost the same tone as the lunar maria, so are hard to spot, but the dark strips extending ahead of the station are heat radiator panels mounted next to the arrays, and they are in shadow. The bright areas are also heat radiator panels, but those are in sunlight. The individual images are rather noisy because high gain was used to reduce the exposure time and reduce blurring, and of course in the circumstances no stacking was possible.

Files associated with this observation

Transit mosaic 31 Mar 20 v2.png (348.7 kB)

Like this image

Steve Knight, Bill Leatherbarrow, Alan Thomas, Martin Lewis, David Basey, Jeremy Shears, Philip Masding, Chris Dole, Andy Wilson, Andrew Dumbleton

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