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The ISS


Littleguy80

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I love the ISS. I've been going out to watch it pass over for years now, long before I ever got a telescope. When it passed over on Christmas eve a couple of years ago, we took the kids outside to watch. We told them it was Father Christmas on his way to France. My eldest son, who was about 6 at the time, smiled and then a look of panic came over his face. He ran inside saying "I need to go to bed!!!".

Last night I was on a mission to see Comet Johnson. I started by splitting the double star, Izar. A real test of my scope. Then using Izar as my starting point I started arcing up looking for the comet. After a little while of searching, I stopped and looked up at the sky to get my bearings. As I was looking up, I noticed the ISS starting it's pass. This was just after midnight. As I was watching it's rapid progression across the sky, it dawned on me that it was on track to come across the region of sky where I had the scope pointed. I didn't touch the scope, I just kept watching. As it approached the area where the scope was currently focused I looked through the eyepiece. Nothing and then a glow as the ISS approached. Just as I was thinking that it was going to pass just outside the field of view, it came through the centre of my eyepiece. It was there for the briefest of moments but the bright glow of the two solar arrays was unmistakable. 

It was incredible luck. Never in a million years of trying could I have got the positioning any better. I stood there with a grin like a Cheshire cat, as I watched the ISS disappear. I've always been amazed at how often I see satellites or space junk pass through as I'm looking through the eyepiece. I never thought I'd have the luck to see the ISS pass through though.

I went on to find Comet Johnson with @John and @andrew63 helping me to confirm the sighting whilst I still had it in the eyepiece. Another great night:)

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2 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

I saw it too last night. I managed to manually track it for a short while. 

Very well done, that's an impressive achievement! I've had one go at manually tracking it but it was pretty hopeless. 

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15 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Very well done, that's an impressive achievement! I've had one go at manually tracking it but it was pretty hopeless. 

I must say it was mostly just trying to keep ahead of it. It was abit jerky but i could sort of move ahead just out of the field of view then let it travel across the eye piece then move ahead just out of the field of view etc etc.  I need to do some more mods to the dobsonian mount as it is still not very smooth to move.

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  • 6 months later...

I also tracked it once, I had my ST80 prepped with 32mm eyepiece and I knew exactly when will it pass. I caught it, tracking it was almost impossible, the view was jerky, but I remember my excitement and puzzled looks as I tried to explain everyone I met for the next few days, that I actually saw 2 solar arrays of the ISS!

People didn't share my childish excitement :(

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