ISSTracking

[Astralstroll]

Just followed the ISS with the dob. It's amazing how much better you get at manual tracking when you have something so good to catch a brief look at. Well worth the minute or so of frantic pushing and pulling.

[JamesF]

And a very nice long pass it was, too

James

[Astralstroll]

Just as well as the first few attempts left me seeing the glow pass by just outside my field of view. Was a cool sight though when I got it better positioned.

[teleaddict]

just watched it go over head myself. It's just a pity I didn't have time to get my scope out after getting in from work

[Astralstroll]

I have a feeling the ISS will return rather soon, so not all is lost. It's a cool thing to have a go at though and much harder and more rewarding than following it with bins.

[firstscope]

about 2:45am i think.i got a glance of it in my dob awhile back could see the solar panels

[Astralstroll]

I've just packed in for the night. Forecast is clear for tomorrow, so I might have another look then if the times are good.

[teleaddict]

unfortunately I had to hit the sack, I was struggling to stay awake. Hopefully I will have another go tonight (skies permitting)

[Ludd]

Having previously tracked it through the finderscope on my equatorially mounted C8 (with a DSLR shooting through the main scope) I tracked the 23.38 pass last night (a short one starting up in the SSE) through the eyepiece of the C8 at a magnification of about 113x. The glare from the solar panels made it difficult to see much apart from the overall shape, but what really surprised me was how easy it was to keep it in the field of view.

It really made me wonder whether I might be able to rig up a bigger guidescope with a diagonal, in the hope of getting a better strike rate with shooting through the main scope. When I'm scrabbling around on the ground trying to view through a straight-through 9x50 finder it's hard to keep the ISS on the cross hairs.

[Codmate]

I like to play this sound while I track the ISS in my Dob.