Track the International Space station with telescope?

[feras281]

I managed to see the International Space station zooming over me last week when out with my telescope , I desperately tried to follow it with my telescope but moved very quick so only got brief glimpse in my finderscope, I took the clamps of the Goto mount to allow me to move it by hand

Does anyone know if there is a way to follow it with the Goto on the syncscan? , It would be so cool to be able to get the main OTA on target and then change  to the higher eyepieces to get a close look?

[Garethr]

Feras

My thoughts as well the other night when I saw it pass over head

My mount will move at up to 800x which set me thinking

There would be a lot of fails as this is such a small target and trying to track would be very difficult but ........

I think with enough thought and practice it might be possible to work out the tracking speed across the sky and using various websites determine the path across the sky.

Then after many nights of cloud, fails and general muppet behaviour on my side manage to grab enough frames to get a good image

Bearing in mind as it tracks across the sky the whole shape / aspect changes as well

Something to get my teeth into even though it is probably impossible from earth to get a good clean image but hey aim high.

Gareth.

[JamesF]

I'm sure there was an application somewhere that would control the mount to track the ISS.  Not sure whether it worked for Skywatcher mounts or something else.

James

[JamesF]

This might well be worth a read: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/112822-tracking-the-iss-using-a-driven-mount/

James

[Garethr]

James

Thanks for the links.

Looks like the challenge is on. …........

Watch this space in about 5 yrs

Gareth.

[JamesF]

It's something that I want to have a crack at sometime, too.  But first I want to get my obsy built and get everything set up in there.

James

[Gazabone]

I've managed to do it once. I know I was using an eq3-2 mount (think I had a 500mm 102 mm apature refractor sorry, can't remember the ep) but I slipped both clutches and the mount gave just enough stability. It was quite an awe inspiring sight when you think that's there's people on it and it's travelling at 17.5K mph.