Hi all

We had a fairly nice pass this morning, reaching about 57deg altitude. I set my 12″ newt up on the EQ mount to start with, and I used Betelguese which was nice and high so I could get focus and set exposure and align the finderscope. 

I then shifted the OTA to the dobsonian base and waited for the ISS to appear. I also had the 350D set up on the tripod to capture the wide field view. As soon as I saw it behind the trees, I started the shutter on the 350D and pressed record in IC Capture to start capturing through the scope.

I tracked manually using the finderscope to try and keep the ISS in the field of view.

12″ newt, 2x barlow, DMK21AU04, 60fps, 1/1667s shutter, 125 gain.

I’m fairly happy with the result, it’s all practise for the time when everything comes together. I like the shadow across the radiators – a view I haven’t captured before.

International Space Station

Here’s a 12-frame animation of the best frames in the pass.

licence:

ISS Animation

And the wide-field image, with the bright moon out of frame on the left.

ISS on the morning 17/10/2008

UPDATE: This image was featured on SpaceWeather October 21, as well as the French Astronomy Cameras Blog (how good is your French? :))

Thanks for looking.