Lunar ISS Transit

This one has been on my bucket list for a couple of years, and I finally got it last night. Not my best photo of the moon or my best photo of the ISS, but

Composite of 6 images.

That's an awesome capture. Well done. What mm was this shot taken at?

Thank you, it was at 700mm. Tricky thing was that this wasn't a visible pass, luckily I had a pretty good guestimate of when it would make the transit.

aa

Nice one!

Cheers,
Stephen

Great!

Great capture, and timing. Well done!

Nice silhouette and a wonderful image.
ISS is a true RoadRunner! Too fast for telescope.
BTW how did you know about exact timing and otherwise calculation for right moment.

Thanks all!

One thing I forgot to mention. Where I took the photo, Upton, KY, there is a largish population of Amish that live right outside of town. The hardware store where I set up at even has hitching posts for their horses.

About 20 minutes after arriving, a gentleman rode by in his horse&buggy with a gas lamp for a light. To say he was traveling 8mph would be generous.

An hour later, I'm watching other humans pass overhead at 17,000mph.

It struck me suddenly how far we've come in 200 years.

aa

Samsen,
First I use this software which will create 3 files if there is a transit found: A text file, and two Google Earth files. Warning: It's not exactly the most user friendly software in the world.

http://pictures.ed-morana.com/ISSTransits​/predictions/

Here are the three files that was generated for this particular pass:

http://doublea.speedge​eks.org/iss-transit/predict.txt

http://doublea.speedge​eks.org/iss-transit/predict.goo

http://doublea.speedge​eks.org/iss-transit/predict.kml

Then I looked around Google Earth for a suitable place to sit for an hour or so. In this case I figured a hardware store parking lot off of KY 224 in Upton, KY would be the best based on the weather report and less of a chance of people bothering me. I then called the store and got permission to shoot on their property.


Then I took the coordinates of the hardware store, and plugged it into Heavens Above to get more info on the pass. I always click on "All Passes". If you click through and find the exact pass, it will show you where the ISS in the sky at what time.

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Here is the star chart of this pass at the location of the hardware store:

http://doublea.speedge​eks.org …rdware_store_up​ton_ky.pdf

In this chart, you can see that the ISS will transit the moon between 23:17 and 23:18. This is great if you can see the ISS, but this wasn't a visible pass. It required more work.

To find the exact time, I then took the coordinates of the store 37.465088, -85.910248 and looked at the predict.txt file to find the closest location and find the time.

44.8 NE 18 Aug 231746 36.2 -173.9 419 37.4678 -85.9058 224 2.7 n -35.7 153.3

In this case, the only thing I cared about was the 231746, which was 23:17:46. The exact time of the transit at that exact location.

Now comes the easy part. Shooting in Manual, I set an exposure for the moon starting with 1/1000s shutter speed (I should have done 1/1600s as the solar panels aren't as sharp as I have gotten previously and I think that extra 2/3stop would have gotten it.). In this case I used 1/1000s, F/10, ISO 400. Then set the camera at hi-speed continuous, Manual focus, OS/IS off.

Two minutes before the pass, I made sure the moon was in frame, (because it moves fast at 700mm on a crop). Using an app on my phone with time synced to 5 NTP servers, I just waited for the time. Then I just held the remove shutter release down a few seconds before 23:17:46 and hoped I got it before the buffer filled. I normally shoot RAW, but shot JPG this night. With the 7D I had 15s of buffer with JPG, and only 3.5s with RAW.

That's it. I'm sure there are better ways of doing it and I welcome any advice or suggestions.

Hope this helps,
Aaron

Aaron: I dearly want to thank you for your time and effort, great explanation and detail that is very helpful to others that might what to pursue your path, in writing above reply. Well said and linked.
I hope the developer in your first link soon comes out with the cellphone apps that can make even things easier.

Must say I love Amish people, their way of life, philosophy and yet must admit enjoy your comment as to "How far we've come in 200 years" or resisted to do so.

Just to add a line on picturing ISS for those who are new to the topic:
This is a lot harder than what you think.
Subject is fast moving.
Knowing when and how, needs a lot of knowledge to be mixed later with the art to make the display pleasant in final image(General principals of astrophotography).
In essence if you are to take the picture of ISS (Light on in), you need to not only know when she is passing above you, but at what exact time, sun is at right that angle, in right location to shine and make ISS bright that is set aside magnification and optical vantage points and challenges. In short, "Best of Luck"!
There are 2 other possibilities and occasions that make it easier to picture ISS and that is when she is located between us and Moon (As Aaron shows so well here) or Sun. Now the Silhouette is to be pictured, still same difficulties with magnification and optical issues persist.

You did great and thanks a lot for sharing.

Aaron -- that's really cool!

harrisa wrote in post #16224252
Using an app on my phone with time synced to 5 NTP servers, I just waited for the time.

You couldn't find an app that synced to 6 NTP servers?

Great shot.

Aaron, great shot, and great work planning it out. Planning is the most technical and important part of photography. Wonderful.

HERE is a program I found, haven't tried it yet. "Java software that predicts transits of the International Space Station across the moon and sun, and close encounters with Mercury thru Saturn."