Since I bought my first scope - a completely hidden world revealed itself to me.
I image the members of our Solar System, the International Space Station (ISS), also airplanes/ISS transiting the Moon/Sun/planets - so basically everything that is not on planet Earth :)
I was a keen blogger for a relatively short period of time, it was great to write down all those early experiences into a blog. Now that I revisited it after a long period of time, it was fun to read back some of the posts.
Some things has changed during this 2 years, mainly that I have created a website and most of my work is posted there now. I do only limited amount of planetary, solar and lunar imaging lately, so my focus narrowed down to manually tracking and imaging the International Space Station. Luckily I have managed to make some equipment improvements and now possessing a set that work perfectly for just that.
Please visit my website for my latest photos, animations and videos of the International Space Station.
In 2016 I’ve been at the Astro Camp
organized by the Hungarian Astronomical Society in Tarjan. Two astronomers gave me 3 solargraphs, one I gave away for a good use to Northolt
Branch Astro, one was a test and this one.
The solargraph was put out on 30th
January 2017 at Wimbledon Common at the windmill facing toward the Ranger Office.
I really didn’t know what to expect from this project as this was
my second solargraph in real use. It’s been collected on the 7th
June and made me so curious, what I might find inside the enegy drink
can.
Here are some photos about opening the
can containing the photo paper.
But what is this thing called solargraph??
Well it is a very simple photographic
camera for taking very very long exposure wide angle photos with a pinhole camera.
You use a box or a can, cut the top 1/3 off and put a light sensitive
photo paper inside. So the paper is taped to the inner side of the
can, whilst you make a whole onto the opposite side of the can, hopefully ending up with the pinhole camera.
After the paper carefully placed
inside, taped at the top to hold it at a fix position, we close the
can and tape it around to seal it from water, humidity etc. It is
that simple.
But I have never made one myself yet, but definitely will in the future because solargraph is a lot of fun!!
But let's see the result of 127 days of waiting. The original photo that came right out of the can is on the left. The one on the right is post processed in Photoshop.
And finally this is a video summary about the whole project. Couldn't document as professionally as I planned, but let's say this was the first step on this long road :)
This is a very special post for many reasons. I've been imaging the International Space Station for years now and it usually takes time to get used to the new astronauts - at least to me. Thomas Pesquet is one of the really cool ones in my opinion, he was heavily involved in science (just like the others of course) and he was/is a great ambassador for space travel, science and astronomy during his stay on board the station.
How cool is the fact, that whilst I am writing this blog post, I am also watching Nasa Tv showing Thomas and Oleg as they have just landed in Kazahstan and making their way out of the landing module.
Last night was a promising night with two very bright ISS pass, a possible SpaceX Dragon supply vehicle launch and some proper deep sky observation too.
Second over head pass details and star chart
Sadly the Dragon was grounded due weather circumstances, which wasn't the best news as I really wanted to give a try on imaging at 3000mm focal length. Next time I guess....
The first ISS pass happened just a little bit before 10pm, part of the sky was still fairly bright so I didn't give time lapse imaging much chance yet. The close up shots didn't give me the results I was expecting, but it was still an amazing experience to see it and show it to friends and their neighbours. They loved it!
Sometimes I have problem with imaging, nobody said this is walk in the park though. Occasionally, despite doing the exact same drill as usual the result is just not coming.
But remaining determent and keen on trying to achieve my best mostly pays off - sooner or later.
The second pass went up to 59 degrees of elevation. You can see the screenshots saved from http://www.heavens-above.com/. They always give a very accurate prediction of the expected illuminated ISS passes.
Second over head pass star chart
As prediction showed, ISS was passing above Moon, Jupiter and even Arcturus too. Timing was super accurate as always, so decided to keep taking 30 second expos and made a composite photo with the individual frames to make its full pass visible.
Composite shots, one with ISS only and the other only with star trails as well
This is a video footage - kind of a summary about the night
Whilst the camera was clicking, I was busy with preparing my Skywatcher 250/1200 Flextube dobson scope for close up imaging.
It went fine, quickly sorted out the good frames with PIPP in ISS mode and later, running through all the frames I had to realize the success. It always feels amazing, when some kind of details reveal themselves, parts like the Cupola, BEAM, Leonardo module, Kibo and Columbus modules etc.
Sequence of the best frames taken with telescope
Best shot with most details
Once the ISS buzz was over, I let my camera continue taking photos looking north-east direction. In the meantime - for the first time I could test my 10"dobson under clear sky with no light pollution.
After we did the most visible object - moon, Jupiter and Saturn - my hunger was huge for deep sky objects.
So I started with Albireo, a wonderful double star. Then hopped onto M57 Ring nebula, M13 Hercules cluster, Mizar double star and eventually M51 Whirlpool galaxy.
Well M51 really blow my mind!! I expected one faint fuzzy ball and that's it. Instead I saw faintly the spiral arms of the galaxy too... no words really. Not bad - just think about it, that object is approx. 23 million light-years away. Really left me speechless.
A bit of spinning with planet Earth
Equipment:
Skywatcher 250/1200 Flextube scope on dobson base
Zwo ASI120MM camera
Zwo Red filter
Televue 2.5x powermate
First of all I must begin with the fact, that 2017 was a disappointing year so far in terms ISS close up imaging. Whenever I had time and had bright overhead passes, weather treated me poorly, never really helping me to achieve my plans.
Especially now, when finally I have a good equipment for this particularly special area of photography - a Skywatcher 250/1200 Flextube telescope on a dobsonian platform. Also I got rid of my color ASI12MC camera, instead I use the mono 120MM version with filters, particularly red filter for ISS.
But eventually the heavens opened up for London in the past few day, warm temperatures and absolutely perfect clear sky was our present after all the bad weather.
So I decided to do an ISS marathon - at least a few attempts on high magnification ISS imaging. Due work I couldn't stay up till morning, so I did the ones around midnight.
I had one over head pass on the 25th May 2017 at 11:15 pm which was at 64 degrees of elevation at its highest point, this was the period when the station was relatively at closest to me. The result was pleasing, despite the odd angle the Sun illuminated ISS - basically pretty much from sideways.
I managed to identify a few little details on the station, such as the Cupola, BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module) and the Canadarm 2 robotic arm. To be honest my main goal was Cygnus-7, I've marked its position but I'm not entirely convinced if visible.
Before ISS pass I collected a few frames of Jupiter through Zwo Red filter
The second attempt happened on 27th May 2017 at 0:36 am, similar pass at 68 degrees of elevation, ended up nearly with the same photo, slightly more blurrier than the first attempt. Probably it is less overexposed, Leonardo module, Cupola and BEAM are less bright so easier to identify. I wanted to catch a much higher over head pass too, but I found a better challenge and chose that instead...
Comparison of the two shots taken at nearly same circumstances
Because not too far from my location there was the ISS Jupiter transit opportunity. The gas giant was nearly 34 degrees above horizon, the predicted transit time was at 10:22pm when the International Space Station was roughly 700km from my location.
Probably the toughest task was to make the decision about camera settings. Only rarely happens, that the current visual magnitude of ISS (at the exact time of transit) matches the other object's visual magnitude. This one wasn't one of those rare occasions sadly, the station was so much brighter (even if it doesn't seem to be a massive magnitude difference), that I couldn't avoid slight overexposure. But this seemed to be the borderline based on experience from previous night. So in Fire Capture I set expo to a value of 0.88 ms time and gain for 55.
First here is a time lapse video taken with my dslr (Canon 600D and a Samyang 8mm fisheye lens). I have to say it was tremendous fun to see ISS rising and approaching fast toward Jupiter. The transit seemed so unlikely at first sight, but the prediction was (obviously) correct and eventually took the right direction. I tried to watch the event with naked eye and also keep an eye on the laptop screen too.
Phenomenal experience, highly recommended to anybody - even with naked eye. The sheer accuracy of the prediction blows my mind every time I witness it.
ISS near Jupiter pass
The gif above shows the actual close pass. It is a real shame, that I couldn't find a place on the centreline, this could have been a nice ISS transit - I mean as good as it can be from UK at this relatively low elevation. Mind this is approximately the real speed of the event. I never work with the raw video directly, instead usually brake the video down into frames and after post processing those frames, I make a gif from them. This way I can enhance the frames slightly, getting rid of some noise if possible and make all the necessary general improvement (contrast, brightness, etc.).
My scope has 1200mm of focal length (FL), which usually isn't the best magnification for close ups so I use a 2.5x Televue powermate to get the right magnification level. But due my inaccurate position from centreline, I did't want to risk missing ISS completely. Therefore barlow option ignored and went for prime focus instead. This way I could avoid any failure - believe me there is nothing more frustrating than missing ISS because your field of view is too little. It happened to me at a few lunar and solar ISS transit, so kind of learned my lesson.
Composite photo of the near pass
And finally here is a funny shot, another composite from the time lapse. Playing wizard with ISS wasn't planned at all. At home I was laughing out loud , when I discovered the possibility of a cool composite shot.
I've seen many of the planetary imagers working with mono cameras, which can give stunning results over the color ones. Therefore I have purchased a brand new Zwo ASI 120MM monochrome camera and a second hand manual Zwo filter wheel with LRGB and IR pass filters.
Just learning WinJupos in depth now, what's already clear is it won't be walk in the park. But that's exactly what's giving me extra motivation for sure....
Weather has been a genuine disaster in 2017, I had one good night for imaging Jupiter, but the strong jet stream took away all the finer details.
Here is where I am right now, the best few shots of Jupiter so far. I have to say not as good as ones taken with the 120MC color version, but hoping for improvement both in image quality and weather.
Ezuttal a PIPP nevu csodas programrol szolnek par szot, igen sokoldalu szoftver melynek oriasi hasznat latjak az amator csillagaszok. Rettentoen jol dolgozik es egesz konnyu kiismerni, elsajatitani az alapokat.
Jomagam leginkabb objektumok kozepre igazitasara hasznalom. Legyen ez bolygozas vagy ISS fotozas, ha eleg frame (kepkocka) all rendelkezesunkre, tokeletes celt szolgal, kifejezetten akkor ha a mechanikank nem koveti a cel objektumot pontsan, magyarul ossze-vissza maszkal a kepernyon. Esetleg valaki ugy bolygozik, ahogy en szoktam, barmifele polusraallas nelkul.
Tovabba ha nincs egyatalan semmilyen motoros mechanikank, ebben az esetben kicsit osszetettebb a feladat de igy is viszonylag egyszeruen elkeszithetoek a stackelt bolygo fotok.
De hogy ne menjunk egybol bele a bolygozas technikai reszleteibe, inkabb egy egyszeru repulorol keszult videon szemleltetnem a szoftver tudasat.
Az alabbi video par napja keszult, a Lufthansa egyik Boeing 747-ese huzott el London folott. Vagatlan, eredeti felvetel.
Nem rossz, de azert nem is jo, valljuk be eleg elvezhetetlen a felvetel. Hogy ebbol mi mindent lehet kihozni, ime....
A PIPP megnyitasa utan ket fele modon nyithatjuk meg a video fajl.
1. File menupont alatt Add Source File
2. Source file fulre kattintas utan egyszeruen behuzzuk a fajlt (drag and drop)
Miutan ez megvan, a Processing Options fulre kattintsunk.
1. kep - Processing Options
Az ablak jobb feleben levo lehetosegek kozul mindenkepp legyen bejelolve
- a Frame Stabilization Mode lehetosegei kozul az Object/Planet
- az Object detection
- Object detection Treshold (errol bovebben a kovetkezo pontban)
- Center object in each frame - minden erzekelt objektumot kozepre helyez
- Cropping - kozrulvagas, nem feltetlenul fontos, de en hasznaltam
Object detection Treshold
2. kep - Auto Object Detection Threshold
A fenti ket foton lathato kis ablakban jobb oldalon a detektalt terulet lathato, melyet pirossal emel ki a progi. Az elso kepen autora van allitva es lathato, hogy nem igazan kepes erzekelni a repulot, az egesz frame piros szinu. Erdemes jatszogatni a lehetosegekkel, miutan az Auto Object Detection Treshold opciot inaktivaljuk (pipa eltuntet) es mi adunk meg erteket. Nekem ebben az esetben 100 volt a megfelelo ertek, a masodik kepen latszik hogy csak a repulotest es a kondenzcsik maradt piros, magyarul a kozepre helyezes soran erre fokuszal az algoritmus.
3. kep - Output Options
Ha ez megvan, irany az Output Options ful, ahol tetszolegesen kivalaszthatjuk, milyen formatumban szeretnenk elmenteni a vegeredmenyt. En ebben az esetben AVI-ban mentettem, de kepkockakra lebontva is elmentheto a video ami ISS kozelik eseteben a fonyeremeny :)
4. kep - Mentes
Miutan hagytam a PIPP-et dolgozni, ez a video lett a majdnem vegleges valtozat. Szepseghibaja, hogy ahogy eleri a szines levelekkel diszitett fa lombkoronat, teljesen osszezavarodik - ertheto modon - es bizonyos ponttol hasznalhatatlan a felvetel. De ha takarasmentes latomezom lett volna ( felhomentes egen), valoszinuleg vegig kovetheto lett volna a repulo nagy nagyitas mellett.
Miutan kivagtam a hasznalhatatlan reszeket, ime a vegeredmeny.
Pontosan ezzel a technikaval keszulnek az ISS-rol keszult kozeli videoim is. Termeszetesen nem en kovetem ennyire stabilan az Urallomast, szoftveres utomunka segitsegevel keszult. Ime egy pelda.
More and more people (gladly) are showing a growing interest toward ISS these days, probably because information about the overhead passes, transits are more accessible than ever before. And let's be honest, who wouldn't be interested in a spacecraft that us humans built, travelling 27,800 km/h, orbiting Earth at 400 km altitude 16 times a day.
When I first bought a scope for myself and became aware that there is this thing called ISS, I immediately thought to try to take an image of it. Than I've seen some of the best ISS photos on the web and I was immediately hooked. I wanted to do the same :)
The only way this could be done for beginners is manually moving the scope and hoping to capture a few useful frames.
Before you do anything outdoors, check what's happening, find details to know what you're dealing with (brightness, elevation, duration, etc.).
I normally get a pretty good summary of information from www.heavens-above.com. Here is a screenshot from the website about the ISS pass I've recorded.
Screesnshot from www.heavens-above.com
The only way you can achieve it is this:
First and probably most important step is to align my reddot finder/Telrad/finder (whichever you have) scope dead accurate with my main scope. It means wherever I'm pointing my Telrad, my main scope will have the same object centered in the eyepiece/camera/dslr. This is very very important, because due relatively high magnification a small error will result in not having ISS in your camera's field of view at all. Therefore all goes to bin....
I made this mistake a few times and was frustrated a lot :) But hey, mistakes are to learn from them right!
Once finder is aligned to scope, the second important thing is camera settings.
I can't give you any exact advises on that, every planetary camera/dslr has it's own sensitivity, therefore you have to find it out for yourself. Yes it means experimenting with your equipment. What I can give you is my experience at a given equipment.
Two ways of doing imaging. let's assume we are setting up for a very bright (between mag -2.5 and mag -3.5)
- Using a dslr camera. Depending on the dslr you're using, you can record video or take raw/jpeg photos on continuous mode. Usually for photos the settings I've used at very bright passes was shutter at 1/1250 and ISO at either 800 or 1600 (equipment 90/1250 maksutov + Canon 600D)
- Using a planetary camera. I personally use a Zwo ASI 120MC, settings usually and the settings on this particular attempt at mag -3.0 was: Shutter 0.800 and Gain 60 ( equipment 127/1500 maksutov + Zwo ASI 120MC color camera). (Update: My color camera is gone, instead I'll use a 120MM mono version from now on. The first shots are at the bottom of the post, taken through hazy sky.)
The rest of the job is determination, enthusiasm and a never giving up attitude :)
I used to use an equatorial mount for manually tracking ISS, but my experience is not the best with it. An Alt-Az mount or a dobsonian type scope is probably the best for this purpose.
Here is a video about how imaging works for me. Time lapse of 10s expos about the preparations and the pass itself.
Sometimes I've got comments like "nice CGI" or "green screen, fake" etc. Well I can not document the event better than this, if someone chooses not to accept that Earth is a globe (not flat) and things actually orbiting around it, I can't really argue any longer....
Have one of these apps:
- ISS Detector (android)
- Sputnik (iOS)
These two images below were taken with a Skywatcher 250/1200 Flextube scope on a dobson platform, that seems to have advantages by its built to follow ISS much easier, than doing the same with an equatorial of alt-az platform. Also a Zwo ASI 120MM mono camera was used to capture frames.
Taken with my new ASI 120MM monochrome camera
Japanese HTV-6 docked and a month later gone
The blog post will hopefully give you a good idea, how this is exactly done. It works for me and hope you might find it useful.
Good luck!! Best way to get good information about the overhead passes
