ISS - Part 2

My dad, now in his early seventies, having seen the wide angle shot of the ISS (see the post ISS - Part 1) mentioned that they used to watch Russian satellites as kids from the terrace of their home in Calcutta (Golpark) based on schedules published in local dailies.  This made me think that we should be able to do something more advanced in 50 years time.



Turns out, a "household" telescope can actually see details on an object about the size of a football field (70m X 200m)  flying at 34 times the speed of a commercial aircraft (17,000 miles/hr) in low earth orbit (250 miles above earth).

The photo above was taken on December 25, 2018 at 6:13 a.m. EST.

Imaging Details

This was shot with an SLR attached to a 1500 mm Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. The scope itself was attached to a field tripod on a ball head (since telescope go-to mounts can't track satellites) and aimed manually at the moving ISS. The shots were taken in burst mode at 1/3200 second while viewing the object through viewfinder. The setup reminded of a shoulder fired weapon.

Below is an artist's impression of the size of the ISS compared to a football field.

ISS comparison to American football field. Artist's impression courtesy of NASA