Wesley's Tool-Box

Previous tracking of the ISS with Nikon P1000 was alright, but I felt that it could have been better. Another good tracking opportunity came up yesterday, so I got my equipment ready and had another shot at it. Suffice to say, the results were quite satisfactory. Many of the shots came out quite clearly, you could see the division of each section easily. I did not need to resort to stacking - only the brightness and the sharpness were adjusted here.

The Space Station came closest to the observer on 18:48:49 (third photo) at a distance of 428km. Altitude from the ground was 411km at the time. You can see that the shots before that had the Zvezda module (lowest point in the second photo at 18:48:19) pointing at the observer, while the shorts after that had the Kibo-Harmony-Columbus modules (lower part of the middle section in the fifth photo at 18:49:49) doing that. Another thing to note is that I was looking at the general direction of the Sun, which had just had set below the horizon, before the space station made the closest approach. As the solar panels are always facing the Sun, I would be looking at the back of them in the first and the second photos, which is why they aren't illuminated and visible there.

Device: Nikon P1000
Settings: 3000mm - ISO 100 - 1/400 to 1/640s - f/8
Filters: None
Time: 2019-02-11 18:48-18:50 KST
Location: Naju, Korea