Shooting the ISS.

[hollis_f]

I've got a good, bright, pass of the ISS tonight, with the weather forecast looking promising. I't supposed to be mag. -3.3 at around 18:45 local time. I'd like to try shooting it with my 300 f2.8, possibly with a TC. But some questions first -

At 300, 420 or 600mm am I going to get anything better than a bright dot?
I guess that the correct exposure is going to be something like what I'd use for the Moon. Something like ISO800, f5.6, 1/250th?
I've no sort of powered mount, but it should be fairly easy to track using a tripod with a gimbal head - yes?Please tell me if you think I'll be wasting my time. Then I'll use a much shorter lens and get a video of it rising over the hills.

[Bernoulli]

Frank, I can tell you that it's size will be about the same as one of the bigger craters on the moon, like Tycho or Copernicus. Depending on how close you are to its overhead pass, it'll be around 30 arc seconds across.

I think at 600 mm you'll start to see some structure and shape.

[Jeff]

I say try and get the fastest shutter speed you can to help negate camera movement. IS on the lens might help too if you have it - even being on a tripod the camera is still panning. For exposure and a starting point on focus, get a picture of a bright star first. Nothing to lose by trying!

[hollis_f]

Darn. Nothing but blobs. Next time I up the ISO to 3200 and drop the shutter speed to 1/1000.

[Adrena1in]

I shot the ISS a while back with a 1200mm scope, using my EAO 450D, and the ISS itself was about 90 pixels long on the final image. Could see the structure, but it was darn small.