ISS-Moon Transit!!!
Posted: 31 May 2013
Thanks to CalSky.com I had been alerted that the International Space Station (ISS) would transit the moon on Friday, 31 May, at 064347 MST:
I've been successful in capturing ISS-Moon transits on two previous occasions: 7 November 2011 and 20 December 2012. (I also captured the Hubble Space Telescope transiting the moon on 29 April 2013.) The moon would be high in the southern sky, but the sky would be bright as the transit would occur about 90 minutes after local sunrise.
I opened the observatory Friday morning at 0418 MST, 67°F. The sky was clear, with the eastern sky beginning to brighten. The Last Quarter Moon was high in the southern sky.
At 0426 MST, viewed the moon, 83X. Then did a lunar terminator tour, 222X. At 0442 MST, captured this image of the moon at prime focus of the 8" LX200-ACF using the D7000 DSLR, 1/400sec, ISO 400:
This photo was taken at prime focus + 2X Barlow Lens, "Hat Trick", ISO 100, and shows Montes Apenninus:
I then did some more lunar observing. Sunrise occurred at 0517 MST, with the sun rising over the hill to the east at 0600 MST. At 0607 MST, focused the camera on the moon and locked the focus.
I began HD video recording, 1/1600sec, ISO 5000, at 0642 MST, and continued for 3 minutes to ensure capturing the transit. The transit actually began at 064350 MST. Here are some frames from the video showing the ISS as it transited the moon from near the north pole (on the right) to the southern region (on the left):
This composite image shows the above images in one sequence. Click the image to view a larger version (2.9 MB).
To view the 1 second HD video (1.4 MB), click the thumbnail:
The observatory was closed at 0655 MST, 68°F, relative humidity 45%.
Comments are welcome; use the Comments section below, or you can Email Me. Thanks.
Cassiopeia Observatory Home Page
