cameron12x wrote:
For those who have imaged the ISS, what body/lens combination did you use?
In that context, what ISO/shutter speed did you also use? Did you bracket?
TIA.
1. Get the big white with the largest front element you can put your hands on, stack TCs on it until it's about f/16 or so, then shoot a bit stopped down at f/20 or f/22 to lessen aberrations.
2. Don't worry about diffraction, the atmosphere will be the limiting variable, and you need all the magnification you can get.
3. Focus manually, prefocus on a star or at the moon shortly before the ISS pass.
4. Use IS mode 2 if the lens is equipped to lessen shake due to panning.
5. Shoot at high ISO to get a shutter speed of 1/640 sec (if with IS), or 2 - 3 stops faster without IS. The ISS has no fine detail that can be resolved given the atmospherics, hence you can denoise like crazy during PP. The noise in the black sky can be easily masked out later.
6. Shoot in bursts at fastest frame rate to increase the chances of "getting through" at clearer spots of the atmosphere.
7. Use a DSLR with the highest pixel density available for maximum reach.
Here's one old attempt at the ISS, shooting data are listed.
scott f wrote:
Is there a website that can tell you when it passes overhead of your location? Or, better yet, one that will tell you when it transits the moon?
If you google 'Tracking ISS' there are sites and smartphone apps that tell you when it flies over your location and where to look in the sky
I've been trying this on and off for several months and still haven't gotten anything that wows me. I think one of my issues is too slow of a shutter speed when it is close to directly overhead. Next time it's around I am going to give it a shot at 1000mm on a 1.5 crop and be more mindful of my shutter speed.
Impressive...I think I saw that ISS once overhead and it was really moving in the sky...if that is what I saw, I am really impressed as that sucker was moving across the night skies.....
Impressive work! I have tried the last 3-4 nights to get a good photo of the ISS and failed. I have tried hand held, and tripod. Is there a lot of post processing on these images? Tonight I went out and took some hand held moon shots and they are perfectly clear and crisp. I am using a Canon 80D with a 100-400mm L lense and a 1.4 teleconverter. Here is a 300% blowup of what I get. I need to figurebula out uploading. It looks more like the Orion nebula. There is a lunar ISS transit tomorrow and 2 solar transits next month I am trying to get ready for. Thanks for all the help you have given here. Nice work!
