ISS with webcam help.

[callisto]

Hi Guys,

Just a quick question.

I'm going to try and image the ISS with my Dob using my webcam,

do I need to use a filter of any sort for this

Thanks,

Mark

[Stephen]

I've got to be honest, if you can get the ISS in view and track it in a Dob using a webcam I'll be more than impressed It's rather fast!

Pessimism aside, depends on the time of day and what sort of shot you think you are going to get. Realistically, I'd say you don't need any filter - however it will be rather bright / star ish on high / late passes so you may want to consider a polarizing filter to "tone" it out a bit.

An expert can advise better (I stand to be proved completely wrong!,) but those are just my thoughts

[MikeD]

I have hand tracked the ISS with my 10" newt mounted on a eq6 and thats a lot harder than tracking it with a dob (only one axis to worry about once you have it in view) so it is doable not easy but doable.

I would use the moon beforehand to set your exposure ect and no you don't have to use a filter.

Good luck and have fun.

Mike.

[callisto]

Thanks Mike,

I'll give it a bash and see how it goes

Mark.

[PeterW]

Directly overhead the ISS Will appear the same size as Jupiter, so pretty small. I tracked it with 12x image stabilised binoculars, lying on the ground and I saw that it was a sort of square shape. There are people tracking scopes and getting images, but given the small field of view you want to get a reasonable image scale... good luck, if you get a result, we'd love to see it!

All the best

PEterW

[callisto]

I will surely post the results when all done

[Dave]

It can be done. Make sure your finder is precisely aligned. Focus the webcam using a Bahtinov Mask on Polaris. Change the shutter speed at least 1/1000 or 1/1500 of a second to reduce any movement blur that may occur. Then reduce the brightness of Polaris, so it is not quite burning out. (A planet like Jupiter will help as you can adjust the brightness of the planet so that it is just a little too bright, but it's almost well gone now unfortunately). Do this all well before time and wait. Once the ISS appears move the scope just ahead of the ISS and stop, letting the ISS go through the cross hairs of the finder scope as central as possible. Once it passes through move the Dob just ahead and let it drift through the cross hairs again. Keep repeating until the ISS has gone below horizon or into the Earth's shadow. Use Virtual Dub to look through all the individual frames and retrieve the few that actually have the ISS on them.

As with all things practice gets better results.

Here's some I took earlier with a 10" Dob:

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-widefield-special-events-comets/119110-iss-webcam-images-7th-november-2010-a.html

And here's a so-called animation I did in a similar way:

http://www.eagleseye.me.uk/Sky/20080729-ISS.gif

Dave

[callisto]

Thanks Dave,

I'll take onboard everything you said there, and hopefuly get some pleasing results

Mark.

[jayjt29]

Here's some I took earlier with a 10" Dob:

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-widefield-special-events-comets/119110-iss-webcam-images-7th-november-2010-a.html

And here's a so-called animation I did in a similar way:

http://www.eagleseye.me.uk/Sky/20080729-ISS.gif

Dave

Great images! Well done mate

Jay

[Dave]

Cheers!