Capturing A Space Station

 

I had all the necessary details written on the slip of paper in my hand, plus a couple that were held tightly in my head.  It was 3:15 in the morning, on the 4^th of July. Any sane person would be sound asleep, rebuilding their stamina for the holiday ahead.  I had just rolled out of bed, leaving what seemed to be a good dream behind.

                The International Space Station was due to pass over my house in about 15 minutes. I have been getting up to watch its’ journey across the skies for the last 5 or 6 days. We have had a nice batch of clear nights. Unfortunately, the moon is increasing in size each night since it is nearing its full phase. It will be full tomorrow.  Luckily the brightness of the moon doesn’t hamper satellite observations…much.  

                Yesterday I got up early and on a whim, decided to try and photograph the stations’ path as it went by. I set up my camera and pointed it where I thought the station would be appearing. Of course, where I pointed it and where it went were two different places. I compared the path from yesterday to the predicted one for this morning and re-evaluated my viewing and shooting location. It is this information that I had held tightly (I hope) in my head.

                On the sheet of paper I have the times it will appear above my viewing location, where the highest point of its’ path will be and where it will disappear. There is also a crude diagram I drew of my house and the street and where the path will be above them.

                I get these details from a site called HeavensAbove.com. This site has details for a large variety of satellites which can be seen every night. They also give sighting details for launches if they would be visible from where you live.  They also have a nice batch of astronomy links!I have been using this site for years, using it to locate the Mir Space Station and the Shuttles that supplied it. Mir left our skies in 2001 so it has probably been over 20 years!

                I took my camera and tripod out into the neighbor’s driveway and set it up. I took a picture of Jupiter and Saturn to focus the lens. I didn’t want to have the camera “searching” for something to focus on when I was shooting so it remained on manual focus. I pointed it where I estimated the pass would occur and took a couple test shots. These shots helped me set my scene, level the camera and determine an exposure which would show the stars and the sky the same way they appeared to my eye. Once I determined where to point and how long to leave the shutter open, I sat on the near-by wall and waited.

                I first saw it as it flashed in-between the leaves of the trees. I waited until it cleared and took my first shot. 10 long seconds, then I took another. After 4 shots, I repositioned the camera a bit towards the right and took 2 more shots. Then the ISS drifted back into the trees close to the horizon. The pass was a little over a minute from my position. Not bad!

                I packed up my gear and went back inside. A quick look at the screen of the camera showed that I had caught it. I set the gear in the hallway and crawled back into bed. I’d check the shots out later. I had some sleep to catch now!

The shots were taken at f9 @ 10 seconds, the lens was set at 18mm. The ISO was set at 3200. The space Station was approximately 254 miles above me, traveling at approximately 15,500 MPH!