"227 miles outside the box" (International Space Station)

I have been curious for a long time whether it would be possible to photograph the international space station as it passed overhead. I had been watching the NASA website and making notes of when an opportunity might come with the ISS passing in close proximity to my location. On Thursday evening 6/24/10, at 9:54pm, that opportunity came, and it was suposed to be visible for around 4 minutes, starting when it was about 800 miles away in the light of the sun, eventually passing to as close as 227 miles. Since the weather was clear, I went outside about 5 minutes prior to the beginning of the viewing window with a 500 f4 and 1.4x mounted on a 40d body. My plan was to try and hand hold the rig using autofocus and see if I could lock onto the 'dot' as it passed overhead, then find out if any detail could be captured from this far away. I made some practice shots of the moon to try guestimate the correct exposure, and I decided on 1/250, f8, iso 400, using full manual exposure, but with autofocus, and image stabilization mode 1, since it would be more of a 'hold it steady' motion than a panning motion. The ISS was easy to see with the naked eye as it apprached, and I was able to locate it in the camera viewfinder and fire off some shots while trying very hard to keep the bright dot in the center of the frame. I was surprised that the 40d actually locked focus very easily most of the time.

Of a couple dozen shots, only a few taken when the subject was the closest showed any real detail. I believe this image is my best shot. It is shown here as a 100% crop, but opened as a 25.2 MP file in photoshop. Since the native resolution of the camera is 3888 x 2592, this is 1.58 times the actual size in the camera. I tried a second attempt Sunday morning at 4:57am, with stacked teleconverters using manual focus, pre-focusing on the moon as a guide for infinity focus. Unfortunately I was unable to keep the subject in the viewfinder when it got close, and it was very frustrating. I was envisioning images twice the size and with more detail than the image shown here. Oh well, maybe better luck on a future attempt....

Processing details: Increased brightness of the raw file, converted to JPG, then brought out more detail using shadow/highlight tool, and sharpened.

Tim, Big welcome to OOTB!! I'm amazed at the detail you were able to capture. I like the image and wonder if it would be stronger if it were not so centered in the frame. I went to your blog and I just want to tell you how much I loved your shuttle launch shots. Really great stuff!:)

Wow! I have also wondered if this was possible, but thought not and never attempted it. My ISS photos are the "star trail" types. Only I know what that streak of light across the sky is in the photo. But this one is no doubt the ISS! Too cool. Thanks for sharing your technique and how you got the right exposure especially. Great idea to use the moon.

All I have is a 400, but maybe with a 1.4 TC, I can do this. Now I have to try.

Patti

It's amazing that you got this clear of an image, Tim. I think it's totally cool that you even tried! I like that you were able to get even this much detail. Amazing!

Fascinating that you were even able to capture this even with the lowly 40D (which I have too). Only a 4 minute window, that's pressure!

Big welcome to OOTB Tim! This is fantastic. I would never have thought it possible at all!! Good for you.

This is amazing... never thought 500mm telephoto optics can autofocus at that range!

Nice image and application, Tim.

Welcome to our little corner of the world!;)

I got to see the ISS fly-by during the last launch of the Discovery Shuttle. But it was too far and too small to capture. It flew past the moon opposite the direction of the shuttle from where I was. Most people didn't turn around to view it. Hope you get a good one, keep trying. This is excellent for the degree of difficulty.

This is very interesting Tim. I can appreciate all the hard work you put into this shot. Thanks for sharing the image.

Cool Tim!!! I've got to get out there now with the 800 and the 2X!!! Probably too much light here in Jersey though!

Tim, Wonderful image. Super effort. Thanks for sharing!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mark Fuge

Nice image and application, Tim.

Welcome to our little corner of the world!;)

I got to see the ISS fly-by during the last launch of the Discovery Shuttle. But it was too far and too small to capture. It flew past the moon opposite the direction of the shuttle from where I was. Most people didn't turn around to view it. Hope you get a good one, keep trying. This is excellent for the degree of difficulty.

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Thank you everyone for your warm welcome to this forum. I think this is the first time I've posted anything here. I was just as surprised as many of you were, to discover that a shot from this far away is even possible. My curiousity is what got me to try it.

For Mark Fuge: I was on the NASA causeway the same night you were, when the ISS flew past us just 17 minutes prior to the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery (sts-131). I shot a few frames of the ISS as it flew past the moon, trying to get both the moon and the ISS in the same frame. I did that, but did not get very good results. In those images at 400mm on a 1.3x crop sensor body, there is not any discernable detail on the ISS. For any one interested, that photo and a few others of the night launch can be seen here: http://timrucciphotography.blogspot....overy-sts.html