ISS pass and M42 on Paddys Day 2009

John O'Mahony · Post by **John O'Mahony** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:44 pm

Here is a shot of the ISS pass at 8.41 GMT passing below Orion. 18-55mm canon lens at F5.6 (18mm setting) ISO 400 mounted ona CGE 11

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3174/336 ... a738_b.jpg

A 3 minute shot of M42 using a Sigma 70-300mm lens at 300mm. ISO 400 with a Canon 450D

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3572/336 ... b2a9_b.jpg

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:03 pm

yip, don't we all hate skyglow, nice shots, do you have bigger versions.

John O'Mahony · Post by **John O'Mahony** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:11 pm

They are 5MB files. It probably looks better on IFAS on the irishastronomy tags

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:50 pm

Whoa thats a lot of sodium!
Looks like you need to get up to the Burren
the next time there is a possy goin'.
Apart from the major skyglow the tracking seems great.
Have you bigger versions?
Also, you could if you wanted to process them to remove some of the orange.

I had a go tonight at the same craic.
I was going to astrotrac it in the Burren but I
found a new spot 2 min walk from my house that has
a good view of the South so I just ran a 30 second shot
from the 350 D on a tripod with the 18 -55mm.
It still picked up some skyglow from Shannon and the road behind but
it's actually not so bad visually.
The two craft were so close it looked like one object.
It disappeared pretty fast into the Earths shadow.

Here is the original one with skyglow before processing.

Gordon Lalor · Post by **Gordon Lalor** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:05 am

I saw this on my way home from the off-licence, it is paddys day after all. There are some very bright passes on the 19th and 21st, it gets down to -2. Excellent photos from both of you guys BTW.

And i've just realised why photos like this seem to suggest the object is going in the opposite direction to its real direction of travel. The "tail" is the ISS dissappearing into the earths shadow, when i saw it earlier i though it had gone behind a high altitude cloud.

Frank, was your photo taken using the astrotrac?

Gordon

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:20 am

No, 30 sec on a tripod.

John,
I hope you don't mind me
(firstly hijacking your thread)
but I took the liberty to do some processing on your M42 shot
just to see how bad that skyglow is.

It's bad, but not the worst.

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:49 am

Damn it lads, with all these images I need some observing time.
We just have to get out to the Burren this week or I'll crack up completely, who wants to go after we check out the scope tomorrow evening in NewMarket on Fergus. ?

John O'Mahony · Post by **John O'Mahony** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:00 am

Frank

The processed image looks soo much better. What software do you use to eliminate the skyglow?
My view to the south is visually pretty dark but the camera picks up the lights from Limerick which is due south from. The camera seesm to pick up everything. Now a clip on CLS filter would be nice???

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:05 am

Ya. A CLS filter will help alright but you just cant beat a dark location!
Now a cls filter and a location like the Burren would be perfect.
There is still skyglow from Galway and local lights but the CLS filter would help
sort that out.
I've seen the results with this filter and I'm impressed.
I will be getting one soon myself.

I can show you this at the next meeting or whenever you have the laptop handy;
The software is Photoshop.
A basic or free version is all you need or even an older version,
but any image software that allows you to alter the colour balance / levels /
saturation / brightness / contrast & sharpness would do.
Your bigger image lends itself better to procession.
This just has 2 colour adjustments, unsharpmask & level adjustments.
It's an easy process, you'll have it in 5 min.

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:27 am

Dave Lillis wrote:who wants to go after we check out the scope tomorrow evening in NewMarket on Fergus. ?

ME ME ME!

I'm working up until 6 or 7 - don't know yet

John O'Mahony · Post by **John O'Mahony** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:11 am

I'm working tomorrow-but what the hell. What time are you meeting at in the Car park?

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:37 pm

Well how about we say 8pm at the carpark in the Burren, is this ok with the 2 of you, if so I can send out a pm asap.

John O'Mahony · Post by **John O'Mahony** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:53 pm

OK with me. I'll be there about 8.30pm

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:59 pm

Dave.
Is there any chance I could hop in to the car with you?
I won't be bringing a huge lot , just the tripod and camera.
You could just swing by and stop outside on the main road, I'll
hop over the fence?

John O'Mahony · Post by **John O'Mahony** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:23 pm

M42 at prime focus F10 CGE11. A 2 minute exposure unguided.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/337 ... 96f4_b.jpg

Reprocessed shot of the ISS pass on St Paddys day

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3652/337 ... 831c_b.jpg