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ISS and the advantages of a small scope


rev_dom

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I was out last night, waiting for the sky to darken a bit, and the ISS went over. It was the first time I've seen it since I got my little scope - a 70mm Skywatcher refractor on an AZ mount - and I managed to get a pretty good look at it as it went over. Very exciting!

I also had a good time with Mars through the big scope too, but the ISS was probably the highlight of my night!

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Yes, it's fun. I once managed to track it briefly with my 8 inch dob and 32mm plossl (magnification x37.5). A very wobbly view but I could see the solar panels.

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I tried taking pictures last night of ISS and although very blurry, you can distinguish some shape. I will post later after a bit of messing with them. 

image.jpegManaged an even better shot last night. Canon 1100d attached via t ring and adapter through 10mm EP. Had to make sure scope and finder were very well aligned settings 6400 ISO 1600 exp. This is just a photo of the screen of my camera when I was excited last night. Will add a better image tonight. 

image.jpeg

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Good for you.

I still have to spot ISS. Last time I had the chance, I had to wait for half an hour and started watching Jupiter instead. And was just a minute late for ISS...

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All my sightings have been unplanned, it's pretty distinctive whenever it happens to pass over. There's a new book about the ISS, a very thorough account of the project history and technical design, not cheap but a big book with a huge amount of info (I got a free review copy :)).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/International-Space-Station-Architecture-Beyond/dp/0993072135/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465213450&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=nixon+architecture+in+space

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Looks like a good book!

I saw it with 50x magnification, which was enough to get the distinctive shape and the solar panels - this was more by luck than judgement though - I just happened to be out and saw it come over.

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Its always nice to see the ISS passing over. My only thought when i see it is: "there are people up there living on that tiny white dot". Ive tracked it with 10x50 bins and saw some shape/features. It was shaped like a bullet and had 2 "ears" ...........which were solar panels.

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There is always something nice about it as it passes overhead, to think people are up there looking down. I have seen it in the scopes I have a couple of times, the last time was with my 18 inch and a power around X200. Apart from scaring me silly when it shot through the field of view I did see a lot of detail but had no luck following it at that power, from where I am it actually passes in front of Vega.

Alan.

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