Wednesday, September 22, 2010
In which I am Revealed as an Idiot
Well, I anxiously awaited the transit of the ISS over the Moon, The cloud, initially socking in the whole sky, cleared over the Moon. I got out Don, the 8" scope, set it up well in advance, time drive was working well. Got out the camera and ran some test videos. All was working well.
With the GPS timer counting down I was fully set up 3 minutes before the passage, and I watched, and waited..
and waited..
and waited...
.. and by the time realised that INV on the CalSky timing link meant "invisible" and lunged for the camera on button, the ISS has crossed the Moon.
Yes, it was a dark pass folks, I should have realised, but I only got the alert just before I left for work, and had to rush to get it out, then I was fooled by the Stellarium ISS tracking, which showed it as a visible pass (AHHRRGGG!!!). Yes, the only way you could have seen this was telescopically, with the dark ISS silhouetted against the Moon (And Yes, I should have double checked when I got home, but I was setting up in between getting kids into baths, washing up etc).
Still, I know my wide field video setup works, even if I have 60 seconds of uninteresting video of the Moon (sigh).
With the GPS timer counting down I was fully set up 3 minutes before the passage, and I watched, and waited..
and waited..
and waited...
.. and by the time realised that INV on the CalSky timing link meant "invisible" and lunged for the camera on button, the ISS has crossed the Moon.
Yes, it was a dark pass folks, I should have realised, but I only got the alert just before I left for work, and had to rush to get it out, then I was fooled by the Stellarium ISS tracking, which showed it as a visible pass (AHHRRGGG!!!). Yes, the only way you could have seen this was telescopically, with the dark ISS silhouetted against the Moon (And Yes, I should have double checked when I got home, but I was setting up in between getting kids into baths, washing up etc).
Still, I know my wide field video setup works, even if I have 60 seconds of uninteresting video of the Moon (sigh).
Labels: astrophotography, ISS, Moon, transit
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 9:08 pm 
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