Saturday, October 29, 2016
The ISS Zips past the Line-up of Venus, Antares and Saturn (28 October, 2016)
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| The International Space Station zips over the trio of Anatres (left) Venus (brightest object centre) and Saturn (right). Stack of 10 x 5 second images taken with a Canon IXUS at 400 ASA stacked in Deep Sky Stacker (which dropped a couple of frames, hence gap in the middle) click to embiggen | Animation of the ISS pass (Animation done in ImageJ using all 10 frames, click to embiggen). |
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| The Line-up, stack of 10 x 15 second images taken with a Canon IXUS at 400 ASA stacked in Deep Sky Stacker Click to embiggen | Single 15 second image showing the Line-up, the reflection of Venus in the ocean, and the reflcetion of the trio in a tidal pool on the beach. Click to embiggen |
After a somewhat mildly hectic afternoon spent in doctors waiting rooms, I finally got out to see the evening sky was startlingly clear. Forgoing the charms of "The Good Dinosaur" I headed down the beach to catch images of the line-up (oh, and actually look at it).
The line-up of Venus, Saturn and Antares was very bit as impressive as the days leading up to it promised. Set against the curl of Scorpio, with the Milky Way above, it was gorgeous.
Photographing it was another thing entirely. The sodium fog lights messed up the images, so I had to go all the way to the actual shoreline to get away from the light. By then the ISS was about to come over, and I had jsut enough time to get set up for it.
And boy did it look good zooming over the trio. A bit dim at first but soon brightened up, certainly well worth it. Also got the reflection of the line-up in a tidal pool at the shore line. All in all a spectacular night, not clouded out at all.
Labels: astrophotography, Conjunction, ISS, Saturn, unaided eye, Venus
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 12:18 am 
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