ISS Transit of the Moon 18th Nov 2016

[ejwwest]

Taken with Canon 70D with 100-400mm Mk II lens and 2x extender (800mm f11).

ISS transit of the Moon by James West, on Flickr

 

 

[Pete Presland]

Superb capture! 

[johnfosteruk]

Splendid, was it planned?

[ejwwest]

On 11/26/2016 at 22:50, johnfosteruk said:

Splendid, was it planned?

I regularly check Calsky to see when transits of the Sun and Moon occur and if one is reasonably nearby try to photograph them. I knew this one was occurring on the morning of 18th Nov so got up early, saw the sky was clear, and drove to a site close to the centreline (a car park at the University of Southampton in this case, but Calsky provides the path so you can find a convenient location). General technique is described here: https://ejwwest.wordpress.com/imaging-the-international-space-station/ 

Had the path been visible from my back garden I'd have set up my telescope (2350mm focal length), but having to drive I used my 100-400mm Canon zoom lens with 2x extender giving me 800mm focal length so not as much detail as this:

Just Passing Through! by James West, on Flickr 

[spaceboy]

That is an absolutely amazing capture. I'm guessing it must take a lot of trial and error to capture such an event as the ISS won't be lit as it approaches the moon ??? If the ISS was lit by the sun then again I'm guessing such an image would also be difficult or is the moon soo much brighter that it will always show the ISS outline?? Although saying that I'm sure it is just as difficult to image the ISS during the day as it crosses the sun as you can't see it coming either so the software must be pretty accurate at predicting transits.

Well done and thanks for sharing.

[ejwwest]

1 minute ago, spaceboy said:

That is an absolutely amazing capture. I'm guessing it must take a lot of trial and error to capture such an event as the ISS won't be lit as it approaches the moon ??? If the ISS was lit by the sun then again I'm guessing such an image would also be difficult or is the moon soo much brighter that it will always show the ISS outline?? Although saying that I'm sure it is just as difficult to image the ISS during the day as it crosses the sun as you can't see it coming either so the software must be pretty accurate at predicting transits.

Well done and thanks for sharing.

Yes. Took years to find the right technique. For the Sun and Moon shots where the ISS isn't visible I use a GPS to get the accurate time and start a burst of shots about 1 second before the predicted transit and stop about 1 sec after the transit. This usually means I have to shoot in JPEG, not RAW, as the camera buffer isn't big enough to hold more than about 7 shots in RAW.