LOW-FLYING SPACESHIP

Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:58 am » by **Nickelson**

(I am sorry if this is posted before)

Amateur astronomers have long known that the International Space Station looks great through a backyard telescope. Lately, it looks even better than usual. "For imaging fine detail on the space station, now is the right time because the ISS has descended to about its lowest orbital height," explains Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands. "I took this picture through my 10-inch telescope on Jan. 14th."

"Normally, the station's four big solar panels are the most obvious elements visible from Earth, but in this picture they are almost invisible due to the lighting angle," he adds. "What the picture does show is the integrated truss structure, the backbone of the ISS in full-length with lots of detail."

The ISS is extremely bright--like Venus or Jupiter--and it moves slowly enough to follow with optics. Indeed, Vandebergh prefers to hand-track his telescope when photographing the ISS. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flybys!
Simple Satellite Tracker
http://www.spaceweather.com/flybys/?PHP ... h573hpmck3

Source:
http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php ... &year=2010