Took this on a night sky in Galloway Park - Is this the ISS moving?

[illition]

Hi everyone, I am completely new to astronomy and just got interested in some star photography. 

On my recent camping trip to Galloway Forest Park, we camped out by Loch Bradan and I set up my tripod with a 600d and a 24mm f2.8 lens to try taking some night shots. 

I had some difficulty with the focus, and actually thought the shots looked fine when I looked at them on my DSLR screen. However, upon closer inspection at home I realised all the shots were a little blur and off focus. Terrible mistake that I regret but still managed to get some half decent shots. 

 

Anyway, as I was looking through my photos, one of my friends mentioned that the streak across the sky looks like the ISS moving through the night sky (FIRST PHOTO), I am no expert at all and have no clue. But what do you guys think? Compared to a photo where an airplane flew by (looks different with various bright lights in the form of dots - SECOND PHOTO) 

Also, he thinks that I might have accidentally caught the sky that has the SRB1806-20. 

 

Completely clueless here and quite curious to know if any if this is possible/true? 

 

Photos attached below!

 

[Davey-T]

If the picture has a time you can download  Stellarium and compare it to the sky at the same time / location.

Dave

http://stellarium.org/

[illition]

7 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

If the picture has a time you can download  Stellarium and compare it to the sky at the same time / location.

Dave

http://stellarium.org/

It says 11.43pm UK Time on 30th April. This was in Scotland, Galloway Forest Park (but i'm completely clueless which direction I was facing)

 

Thanks for the info, I will try and check that out. 

 

Does the streak look like it might be the ISS though? Any other phenomenons that might cause something like that? (I ruled out shooting star as that would probably streak across the entire frame in 30 seconds) 

[Davey-T]

Doesn't look bright enough for the ISS but there are lots of satellites up there.

Meteors don't necessarily cover the whole frame.

Dave

[johnfosteruk]

You don't want to listen to me but it seems quite low. I haven't studied the ISS orbital pattern in detail but I don't recall ever seeing it that low (as it seems to me anyway) at UK&I lattitude. Anyhoo as I said I'm probably wrong. 

Nice captures though despite the focus issues. You could try superimposing the star field from the first one over the foreground of the last one as long as you're not a purist of course and don't mind a bit of photoshop/GIMP

[illition]

I tried the app, and I believe this is the same direction/sky I was looking at? 

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I have no idea how to check where/when the ISS was or what that streak might be. 

 

Any other explanations? Thank you so much to everybody for the help so far though. 

[illition]

14 minutes ago, johnfosteruk said:

You don't want to listen to me but it seems quite low. I haven't studied the ISS orbital pattern in detail but I don't recall ever seeing it that low (as it seems to me anyway) at UK&I lattitude. Anyhoo as I said I'm probably wrong. 

Nice captures though despite the focus issues. You could try superimposing the star field from the first one over the foreground of the last one as long as you're not a purist of course and don't mind a bit of photoshop/GIMP

I don't mind but will have to figure out how to do that slowly  

[Davey-T]

Is that Stellarium, if it is you can enable satellites (the little ISS icon at the bottom of the screen) and watch them track across the sky to compare to your picture.

The ISS can be any where from overhead to scraping along the horizon.

Dave

[johnfosteruk]

Just now, Davey-T said:

Is that Stellarium, if it is you can enable satellites (the little ISS icon at the bottom of the screen) and watch them track across the sky to compare to your picture.

The ISS can be any where from overhead to scraping along the horizon.

Dave

Every day's a school day. Thanks Dave. 

Said you shouldn't pay me any mind!!! 

[illition]

5 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Is that Stellarium, if it is you can enable satellites (the little ISS icon at the bottom of the screen) and watch them track across the sky to compare to your picture.

The ISS can be any where from overhead to scraping along the horizon.

Dave

Thanks for the reply. It is Stellarium.  I played with the icons but don't see any one for satellites or the ISS. :/

 

Sorry for the trouble 

[Davey-T]

The 6th one from the right, it looks like it's already on though, if you click on the fast forward button to speed up time you should see various satellites scurrying across the sky.

Dave

[Dave In Vermont]

Loading & learning to use Stellarium, while a most useful task, might be overkill just to identify satellites. May I suggest Previsat instead?

Previsat is a free satellite-tracker. It can ID thousands of satellites and can be set to alert you when the ISS is coming over your location. Instructions are bundled in with the software. This is coming through SourceForge, the same outfit that carries Stellarium. And hundreds of other free astronomy-related software-programs:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/previsat/

There are other satellite-trackers available - all free. I like Previsat the best.

Happy hunting!

Dave

[Davey-T]

An example.

Dave

 

 

[illition]

Is there a way of figuring out the exact name of the satellite I (accidentally) caught. Just very curious thats all. 

I figured that actually I was not facing west, but infact East. The constellations all match up and I found the satellite which I think I caught. I'm trying out the Previsat app right now. 

 

 

[Dave In Vermont]

Yes. In both Previsat and Stellarium.

Dave

Click image for full-size.

[illition]

17 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

Yes. In both Previsat and Stellarium.

Dave

Click image for full-size.

 

 

Got it! I believe the satellite I saw was Cosmos 2228

 

[Dave In Vermont]

The Cosmos - series are classified as communications' satellites from Russia. Cosmos 2251 had a collision years back. Now there are literally 100's of pieces of it in orbit. And each one is numbered and tracked to be aware of if it might crash into something else. This is why there is so many entries for Cosmos 2251 debris.

Enjoy your new aspect of astronomy - satellite-telemetry!

Dave

[brantuk]

See here for ISS passes and tracking - they're quite regular and once you've seen it you'll always recognise it. It's distinctly different from planes, meteorites, iridium flares, and satellites, etc. Once you're outside waiting for a known pass - you'll know what to look for.

http://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx

[ronin]

According to Heavens Above there were no passes of the ISS from April 25 to May 5th visible in the Scotland area, likely none in the UK As a whole. So it would seem to be something else. The image appears to show on/off/blinking although it is bright, and I would have said too bright for a plane at that apparent distance.

From the tented photograph I guess you were facing North West, cannot make out which direction it was going L-R or R-L.