Photo Essays

dNovember 22, 2016: Watching the International Space Station pass

I've been trying to photograph the passes of the International Space station. I'm using a really great web site

http://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=25544 that provides a forecast of satellite passes when ISS will be visible - before sunrise and after sunset.

I'm using a Nikon D500 and D5300, ISO 1250, 20 sec exposure, internal shooting (though I can't figure out how to make 20 20 sec exposures - only 9. This morning I actually saw the ISS (missed it my first attempt several weeks ago) -

Here is the D5300 composite image (using Gimp, load as layers and change the transparency to 50%)

nov 22 1016 1019 5300 ISS composite

D5300 05:49:01

nov 22 1016 5300 ISS 05 49 01

05:49:26

nov 22 1017 5300 ISS 05 49 26

05:49:51

nov 22 1018 5300 ISS 05 49 51

05:50:15

nov 22 1019 5300 ISS 05 50 15

D500 composite

nov 22 4265 4269 500 composite

05:58:59

nov 22 4265 500 ISS 05 48 59

05:49:20

nov 22 4266 500 ISS 05 49 20

05:59:40

nov 22 4267 500 ISS 05 49 40

05:50:00

nov 22 4268 500 ISS 05 50 00

05:50_20

nov 22 4269 500 ISS 05 50 20

05:51:01

nov 22 4271 500 ISS 05 51 01

05:51:28 I saw the ISS and moved the camera to catch the track as it approached the east horizon. Jupiter to the left of the ISS track

nov 22 4272 500 ISS 05 51 28

05:52:03 - Jupiter on the left as the ISS passes down

nov 22 4273 500 ISS 05 52 03

Orion

nov 22 4276 500 orion

Polaris and Big Dipper

nov 22 4280 500 polaris big dipper

Polaris and the Big Dipper

nov 22 4281 500 big dipper

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning