The Moon and ISS [OC]

lefty7283@lemmy.world to pics@lemmy.world – 306 points –
i.imgur.com
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This is a photo from a lunar transit of the space station a few years ago. I had another telescope setup to take a video of the pass, and here's a composite of the frames it took (the whole thing lasted less than a second).

I really enjoy the scale of this image, with the ISS being 540km away, and the moon some 380,000km in the background. more detailed info on the ISS Transit ISS transit can be found here courtesy of transit-finder. Captured on the morning of June 24, 2019 about 30 minutes after sunrise.

Equipment:

  • Meade ETX125-EC

  • AW 71" Camera Tripod

  • Canon Rebel T3i (astro-modified)

  • Meade #64 adapter

Acquisition:

  • 1/800" at ISO 800 single exposure

Capture:

  • I just held down the shutter button a second before the ISS pass occurred, and got 3 frames containing the ISS

Processing:

  • AutoColor and Levels adjustments in Photoshop

  • MLT noise reduction and annotation in PixInsight

Holy shit, you can actually make out the panels on the ISS. I didn't know you could take a picture that clear with a terrestrial telescope. That's so cool!

Man, what a picture! This is incredible. The scale difference of the moon and the station is just so perfect