Saturday, December 23, 2017

ISS Lunar Transit
On 20 Dec 17, the International Space Station transited the waxing crescent moon shortly after sunset, from the point of view of north-western Louisiana.  I found this from the very-handy ISS Transit Finder web app:
https://transit-finder.com/

The interface is very easy and the output makes it simple to optimize your selected location within the transit corridor.  Here's a re-calculated map for that transit...



Interestingly, it has changed by a couple miles today, versus the calculation I did prior to the actual transit.  I don't know if the orbital elements changed since Wednesday or the back-calculation introduces some error...

I used the Orion 80mm (f/5) scope and the QHY5III174M camera again.  Here's the video of the transit, at 10% speed, plus a few zoom-ins and a 4% speed playback:



Thanks to the professionals at Camp Minden and in particular, SFC Jowers for the support at the location.

Since this worked, I'll next plan for a solar transit as well as another with the big scope.


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