Sunday 7 June 2020

ISS Transit 5th June



I finally caught my first ISS solar transit!  I consider myself very lucky as the day was dominated by sunshine and heavy showers, and, 5 minutes before the transit it was raining, not long after the transit it was raining.  I used the 100mm Tal refractor stopped down to 60mm to give f16 at the filter and the camera chip.  The seeing was bubbling away as can be seen in the animation that was taken in calcium light with pseudo colour added later.  I was pleased to see in the individual frames the solar panels and also the crew modules clearly visible.  At the time the space station was 725km away and travelling at a speed of 7.25km/s, with the total transit time lasting a brief 1.4 seconds.