Taking pictures of satellites

[Charlotte]

I've just read on the BBC site about a picture of the Jules Verne space freighter that was taken by an amateur photographer and satellite enthusiast, John Locker.

The guy's clearly a bit of a propeller-head, but it takes a hell of a lot of work to take a picture of something moving at 27000km an hour, 340km away.  Pretty impressive, no?



Googling him, it would appear that it's no the first time he's been in the news.

Pentagon reveals plans to shoot down spy satellite over Ireland

Although it doens't look very impressive, I can't help but wonder how hard he worked to get this shot:  Clicky

Here's the news story:

Spy Photo Transmission Could Put Troops at Risk, Briton Says

A number of his images are on www.galaxypix.com - a fascinating site.

[David Martin]

Part of it depends on the nature of the orbit. He appears to have used image stacking on a relatively cheap camera. I'm tempted to wander up to my local observatory and see what I can do wrt to getting some nice images..

..d

[hellymedic]

Part of it depends on the nature of the orbit. He appears to have used image stacking on a relatively cheap camera. I'm tempted to wander up to my local observatory and see what I can do wrt to getting some nice images..

..d

We Have The Technology!
We are not local to David but Charlotte's not far away. Open evening at our observatory very soon. PM for details...

[Charlotte]

Now that would be fascinating 

I bet you can get some pretty accurate data for when the ISS passes overhead and where to look...

[Chris S]

You've not really lived until you've filmed an Iridium Flare:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/c9SFzwlzQvE&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/c9SFzwlzQvE&rel=1</a>

I guess you just need a tracking platform of some kind and a way of programming it for the particular target you hav in mind.

[Basil]

I use this site for info on Iridium Flares and the ISS.
http://www.heavens-above.com/
You'll need to plot in your exact location and hight above sea level for acurate Flare spotting.

[bobajobrob]

We Have The Technology!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/-BAfpCJ95LI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/-BAfpCJ95LI&rel=1</a>

[David Martin]

Part of it depends on the nature of the orbit. He appears to have used image stacking on a relatively cheap camera. I'm tempted to wander up to my local observatory and see what I can do wrt to getting some nice images..

..d

We Have The Technology!
We are not local to David but Charlotte's not far away. Open evening at our observatory very soon. PM for details...

Sounds fun if I am in the locality. My local observatory is here and well worth a visit (free) for anyone in Dundee on a weekday outside of summer time (17.00-2200).

..d

[andygates]

Propellortastic.   

[redshift]

Now that would be fascinating 

I bet you can get some pretty accurate data for when the ISS passes overhead and where to look...

If you grab a copy of STS Orbit Plus, (sadly the author of the software died last year, but it's still available on a few sites) and copies of the NORAD Two-line elements, you can have your very own orthographic projection of ISS, or the shuttle when it's up, plus the Hubble and a few others (up to 16 at a time).  It does pass predictions for your locality if you stick your lat/long in, and will even calculate the Doppler shift for you if you want to use the radio to listen to the comms (or talk on one of the amateur bands they sometimes operate).  Runs in DOS, windowed, fullscreen, or even using DosEmu under Linux.

Sad?  Geek?  When I can do stuff like that, who needs a life...? 

[andym]

My telescope is too manual for tracking satellites, and anyway one of the EQ mount wormscrew adjusters is bent, but I will admit to doing a bit of satellite spotting as an occaisonal hobby.  My record is 3 consecutive passes of the ISS and 15 identified objects (plus a few unidentified ones) in one evening.  All with the naked eye.

Was going to upgrade to a decent Celestron or Meade complete with computer controlled mount, so that I can attach camera etc., but can't decide what to get.

There are some guys in Munich (not sure which institute) that take plenty of ISS and Envisat pics via telescope.  If/when I can find the link, I'll be sure to post it here.

PS I've seen many satellites on ground too... cos that's my job

[TimO]

PS I've seen many satellites on ground too... cos that's my job

Snap.  That's at least three of us in the space industry!

I work on Cluster, DoubleStar, Rosetta, and whatever else we can get funding for in the future.

We've got a set of Amateur Radio Satellite Comms kit that we got some MSci students to build last year.  It'll track and monitor Voice, Morse, Packet Radio, etc from small satellites that operate in the Amateur Satellite Service bands.

[andym]

Snap.  That's at least three of us in the space industry!

I work on Cluster, DoubleStar, Rosetta, and whatever else we can get funding for in the future.

Double Snap (sort of).  Worked on Envisat hands on for a long time, with a 2 year sabbatical to work on Rosetta (ground testing before launch).

[PaulR]

That iridium flare footage is superb - that's a superb bit of tracking.  They're a great thing to be able to point out to friends in a pub garden, apparently randomly saying "Look up there - in a few seconds there'll be a very bright light".  I've yet to try this trick on  FNRttC.

[Jaded]

The guy's clearly a bit of a propeller-head, but it takes a hell of a lot of work to take a picture of something moving at 27000km an hour, 340km away.  Pretty impressive, no?

This is easier than the challenge I am faced with on 23rd June when I aim to take photographs of a similar fast moving object with much less indeterminate timing.

[Maladict]

That picture is great.  I love this though:

APOD: 2006 September 21 - Sharp Silhouette


Edit: changed to link to page containing image rather than to image

[TimO]

That is pretty damned impressive, although someone clearly used a damned big instrument to get that good an image.  It's not something that's been shot with a back yard telescope.

[Maladict]

Actually, only a 150mm refractor according to:

Thierry Legault - Transit of ISS and Atlantis in front of the Sun

[TimO]

I guess it's not as difficult as taking a shot of a satellite by it's reflected sunlight.  When you are imaging a satellite that way, you need long exposures, and obviously have issues with keeping the optical system stable during that period.  With this shot, the problem is probably taking a short enough exposure that the image doesn't over-expose!

[Charlotte]

The guy's clearly a bit of a propeller-head, but it takes a hell of a lot of work to take a picture of something moving at 27000km an hour, 340km away.  Pretty impressive, no?

This is easier than the challenge I am faced with on 23rd June when I aim to take photographs of a similar fast moving object with much less indeterminate timing.

Worrisit?

[DrBru]

I guess it's not as difficult as taking a shot of a satellite by it's reflected sunlight.  When you are imaging a satellite that way, you need long exposures, and obviously have issues with keeping the optical system stable during that period.  With this shot, the problem is probably taking a short enough exposure that the image doesn't over-expose!

Don't think the exposure would have to be too long. Satellites in reflected light are relatively (to stars) very bright (i.e you can easily see them with the naked eye!). Even the cheapest webcam on the back of a 6-inch telescope would only need milliseconds of exposure. On that timescale you don't really have to worry about the telescope's stability. The atmosphere will screw you up on the timescale of a few milliseconds (that is why stars twinkle), but you just take 100 images and pick the one where you got "luckiest" and the atmosphere was stable for 10ms.

The scale of the ISS is about 30 arcseconds (guessing it is ~50m long?). That is comparable in size to planets. On a good night in the UK, you should be able to resolve things bigger than about 2 arcseconds. That would match up with the first image Charlotte posted, where you can just resolve the individual solar panels, which are a few metres across I imagine..

Agree with you about the silhouette image -- much money spent on solar filters I expect!!

[Chris S]

Agree with you about the silhouette image -- much money spent on solar filters I expect!!

Or it's shot through a pair of welders goggles inside a welders mask.

[Jaded]

The guy's clearly a bit of a propeller-head, but it takes a hell of a lot of work to take a picture of something moving at 27000km an hour, 340km away.  Pretty impressive, no?

This is easier than the challenge I am faced with on 23rd June when I aim to take photographs of a similar fast moving object with much less indeterminate timing.

Worrisit?

[David Martin]

Agree with you about the silhouette image -- much money spent on solar filters I expect!!

Or it's shot through a pair of welders goggles inside a welders mask.

Not sure that the optical quality would allow that to get such a sharp image.

..d