Hi guys - Well, tonight clouded over again, so I thought I would work on the images I captured the last two evenings, and share a post. Hmmm, sounds like something I saw two old crows try to do once - one didn't make it, but that's another story.

Iridium 42 flare: Image taken 09 April at 21:11:46 local time; Magnitude -2 at my location; Altitude 13°; Azimuth 358° (N); distance to flare center 26.0 km (W); intensity at flare center -6. Tripod-mounted Canon 20D with 16-35mm f/2.8 Series L lens set at 32mm, using a remote shutter release. This is a combination of 7 images, each 30 seconds at f/11, ISO 800. The second and third images of this set are the ones that actually captured the flare data, and as a result I ended up with a small gap between these two images. This gap was filled in using PhotoShop's Healing tool. The 7 images were combined in Image Stacker. Final processing, text frame and cropping were done in PhotoShop CS; noise clean-up was done in Neat Image.

Iridium 80 flare: Image taken 10 April at 21:05:15 local time; Magnitude -1 at my location; Altitude 16°; Azimuth 358° (N); distance to flare center 32.4 km (W); intensity at flare center -6. Tripod-mounted Canon 20D with 16-35mm f/2.8 Series L lens set at 23mm, using a remote shutter release. This is a combination of 5 images, each 60 seconds at f/8, ISO 400. The first image of this set captured the full flare's increase, peak and decrease in intensity. I think this is the first image that I've been able to capture the "whole flare" with one shot. The 5 images were combined in Image Stacker. Final processing, text frame and cropping were done in PhotoShop CS; noise clean-up was done in Neat Image. The one bright star near the top of the image, just right of center (that's not trailed) is Polaris.

International Space Station trail: Image taken 10 April right after it reached maximum altitude at 20:00:05 local time; Magnitude -0.5; Altitude 63°; Azimuth 316° (NW); Distance 363 kilometers above Earth. The two bright stars in the upper left hand corner are Pollux and Castor. Canon 20D with 16-35mm f/2.8 Series L lens set at 16mm, using a remote shutter release. Camera and lens were mounted on a Losmandy duplex plate, next to a Meade 5" AR5 1180mm (achromat) refractor; a Losmandy G11 mount provided the "firmware" to hold this whole contraption above the ground. This is a single, full-frame (uncropped) 30-second exposure taken at f/8, ISO 200. Final processing (levels and curves) and text frame were done in PhotoShop CS; noise clean-up was done in Neat Image.

I took a bunch of images of Saturn through the 5" refractor using a Meade Lunar Planetary Imager last night as well; played with the settings a little, but haven't been able to get much more detail than the earlier frames I shot and posted here. I think my biggest problem, other than poor seeing, is the small image scale caused by using an 1180mm, f/9.3 refractor. Even with a 2.5x Powermate, I still end up with only a small image to work with, and this probably compounds the focusing difficulty I've had to deal with.

Comments welcome

Clear skies!

Paul

Attached Images

	Iridium 42 - IMG_6276_IMG_6282 text frame_filtered low res.jpg (139.3 KB, 49 views)
	Iridium 80 - IMG_6648_IMG_6652 text frame_filtered low res.jpg (132.7 KB, 39 views)
	ISS - IMG_6645 4x6 text frame_filtered low res.jpg (129.7 KB, 52 views)

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Paul.

You are really becoming an expert with this!! Great shots and thank you for sharing them with us!!

Phil

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If at first you fail, you're running average

Hi Paul

I agree with Phil you really have got the timing down. Do you use Heavens above as a reference for the Iridium flares. I have heavens above and I also use Calsky, I like Calsky better.

I get e-mail alerts from Calsky on conjunctions - space junk thats coming down close to where you live, ect. Keep up the great work Paul

Hi Paul!
Wow!!!

Your place is pretty blesses with such sights.

Thanks for sharing !

Keep it coming !

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Jean
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"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." - Albert Einsteiin

Great shots indeed, nice presentation also.

Thanks, Phil, Paul, Jean and Efrain!

Clear skies!

Paul

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Photons are free. Take some!