Paul Rix
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/06/04
Posts: 2958
Loc: Zanesville, Ohio,USA
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Tonight at 1800 Local, the ISS and Discovery passed almost right over Zanesville Ohio. I was out on a flight today and so I have been hoping that the passenger would turn up on time.. well they did and I got home with an hour to spare before the pass. I rushed to get the scope set up, focused and zeroed in my Telrad. I got a couple of nice frames out of nearly 3500 taken with my Phillips SPC900NC webcam..
Discovery was due to undock at 1709 EST, so this is taken less than an hour from separation. I have not done any processing on it yet so maybe there is more detail to pull out (I kind of doubt it though).
What makes this even more exciting for me personally is that Erika and I were in Florida and visited the Kennedy Space Center the week before launch and saw Discovery waiting on the launchpad. 
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Climbing the Learning Curve
Meade 10" LX200 Classic: WO 66SD.
Philips SPC900NC, DMK21AU04.AS, Meade DSI Pro and DSI Pro II.
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TIMMY!
member
Reged: 05/02/05
Posts: 55
Loc: Houston, TX
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Beautiful picture. Looks like you must have had good seeing to get so much detail in there. Great work!
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Tim
Orion SVP 6LT
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lukasik
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 10/11/05
Posts: 890
Loc: Lawrenceville, Georgia
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Paul, this is flat out astounding! Which scope did you use? Any other capture data you can share?
Congratulations on a fantastic shot.
Regards,
Bob
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Dave LoPresti
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/25/03
Posts: 1986
Loc: Preston, Connecticut
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Wow. Great work Paul. That would be worthy for a local news submission! 
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Dave L
Meade 10" SCT
TEC 140 SN291
Coronado SolarMax 90mm <.5Å
WO 80mm ZSFD (10th Ann. red)
Tele Vue Pronto
Coronado PST
Canon 18x50 IS
 Wonderful wife 
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Paul Rix
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/06/04
Posts: 2958
Loc: Zanesville, Ohio,USA
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Thanks Tim and Bob, I am really quite pumped up over getting this image as it is by far the best ISS image I have managed so far (I was starting to get a little disillusioned with trying to image it as I have had several attempts with poor results in the last year. Getting a recognizable Shuttle in the same frame is more than I could have ever expected  .
As for details, I used my 10in LX200 Classic (F10), and a Phillips SPC900NC webcam. I decided to use 20 frames per second despite the image compression (I figured that more frames = more chance of capturing something). Exposure I guaged by using Deneb (it was guesswork really). Sliders for both exposure and gain were at about 50% I think.
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Climbing the Learning Curve
Meade 10" LX200 Classic: WO 66SD.
Philips SPC900NC, DMK21AU04.AS, Meade DSI Pro and DSI Pro II.
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Paul Rix
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/06/04
Posts: 2958
Loc: Zanesville, Ohio,USA
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Thanks Dave, you think the local news would be interested in that?
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Climbing the Learning Curve
Meade 10" LX200 Classic: WO 66SD.
Philips SPC900NC, DMK21AU04.AS, Meade DSI Pro and DSI Pro II.
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Gendo
Post Laureate
Reged: 12/12/05
Posts: 3231
Loc: Rexburg, ID
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That is an exceptional image!!!
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badsnoopy
One star is enough
Reged: 12/20/04
Posts: 3556
Loc: La Porte, IN
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Outstanding. Didn't get a chance to take my first try today.
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Robert
TV Genesis SDF
Losmandy G11
10x14 Roll roof observatory
Lumenera SkyNyx 2-2m
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iceman
Post Laureate
Reged: 03/07/04
Posts: 4383
Loc: Gosford, Australia
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Wow, stunning!
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Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery
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Elias
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/31/05
Posts: 595
Loc: Greece
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Fantastic result! The shuttle is visible very clear! (To me it looks just undocked).
I also tried yesterday with ToUcam (and C11 at F10) for a colour image, but i chose a fatal 1/1500 exposure and the frames i got had very low contrast. 
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http://www.astrochas.net/
Edited by Elias (12/20/06 12:45 AM)
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solshaker
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 06/06/06
Posts: 1350
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 excellent work!
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My Gallery
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Dave LoPresti
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/25/03
Posts: 1986
Loc: Preston, Connecticut
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I think you should send it in, Paul.
"local astronomer catches shuttle separation in the act"
kids would love it. 
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Dave L
Meade 10" SCT
TEC 140 SN291
Coronado SolarMax 90mm <.5Å
WO 80mm ZSFD (10th Ann. red)
Tele Vue Pronto
Coronado PST
Canon 18x50 IS
Wonderful wife
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RoverWanderer
member
Reged: 06/10/05
Posts: 34
Loc: roaming
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Great result even for 10in and a webcam! Perfect timing and settings, indeed. 
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Celestron 8" SC XLT
H-EQ5 + Rajiva mod
Philips PCVC840K ToUcam Pro II
Meade DSI Pro II b/w
Canon 350D + 500/5.6 Rubinar
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thelittleman
Vendor (Peter's Actions)
Reged: 05/21/05
Posts: 4077
Loc: Hampshire, UK
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Paul - I can't see it  I have tried the refresh trick too - any suggestions?
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Clear Skies,
Peter
Photoshop Tutorials and Actions! New actions now added 
Preprocessing in Iris Tutorial
http://peter-morris.magix.net/
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Paul Rix
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/06/04
Posts: 2958
Loc: Zanesville, Ohio,USA
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Peter, the direct url for the image is
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/PaulRix/Astronomy/ISSandDiscoverySTS116.jpg
If that doesn't work I could fire it off to you in an email (it is a really small file).
Thanks again for all the kind words. It was definately my best ISS image to date, but I have to concede that luck paid a big part (and that is the best frame out of a 3500 frame capture). I am still 'over the moon' with it though.
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Climbing the Learning Curve
Meade 10" LX200 Classic: WO 66SD.
Philips SPC900NC, DMK21AU04.AS, Meade DSI Pro and DSI Pro II.
Edited by Paul Rix (12/20/06 07:39 AM)
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Patrick
Postmaster
Reged: 05/16/03
Posts: 6883
Loc: Franklin, Ohio
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Great shot Paul! I didn't realize the shuttle was still docked as it passed over, but I can see from your shot that it is. Very interesting!
Great capture. Were you using the LX200's satellite tracking system to keep the ISS in view?
Patrick
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Discovery 10" f/6 Split Tube Dob
Celestron C6S-GT SCT
AT66ED Refractor
Oberwerk Ultra 15x70 Binocular
475B Geared Tripod & 501HDV Head
Oberwerk 9x60 Binocular
Celestron Regal 8x42 Binocular
Canon 30D DSLR;Meade DSI;SPC900-NC
Mini EQ1
My Astronomy Pages
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thelittleman
Vendor (Peter's Actions)
Reged: 05/21/05
Posts: 4077
Loc: Hampshire, UK
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Wow that is sharp. Thanks for the link Paul - it was definitely worth it 
Seeing as you haven't I thought I would take the liberty to sharpen it up a little Hope you don't mind
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Clear Skies,
Peter
Photoshop Tutorials and Actions! New actions now added
Preprocessing in Iris Tutorial
http://peter-morris.magix.net/
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Tim2723
The Moon Guy
Reged: 02/19/04
Posts: 5123
Loc: Northern New Jersey
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Paul, that's just remarkable! Excellent job!!
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The crwth will set you free!
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~Steph~
Texas Wildflower
Reged: 06/11/05
Posts: 21748
Loc: North Texas
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Very impressive, Paul!
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Steph
10" RCX400 ~~ 4" TV102 ~~ WO ZS80FD ~~ PST
Serenity Observatory
HansenAstro | CN Member Websites
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Scott Beith
SRF
Reged: 11/26/03
Posts: 34377
Loc: Gulfport, MS
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That is beyond words. I just shared it with a few friends.
Amazing shot!
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  Scott (Kilt Boy)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
"The measure of a man’s greatness is not determined by what he accomplishes for himself, but by what he accomplishes for others.” -- Some Bald Guy
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