Starship Asterisk*

Moon over ISS

Explanation: Completing one orbit of our fair planet in 90 minutes the International Space Station can easily be spotted by eye as a very bright star moving through the night sky. Have you seen it? The next time you do, you will have recognized the location of over 20 years of continuous human presence in space. In fact, the Expedition 1 crew to the ISS docked with the orbital outpost some 400 kilometers above the Earth on November 2, 2000. No telescope is required to spot the ISS flashing through the night. But this telescopic field of view does reveal remarkable details of the space station captured as it transited the waning gibbous moon on November 3, just one day after the space age milestone. The well-timed telescopic snapshot also contains the location of another inspirational human achievement. About 400,000 kilometers away, the Apollo 11 landing site on the dark, smooth lunar Sea of Tranquility is to the right of the ISS silhouette.

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Yeah, well... Moon over ISS, ISS over the Moon - what's the difference?

It's all just free fall in curved space anyway.

Ann

Interesting geometry here. We’re seeing an unlit side of ISS in front of a sunlit part of the Moon. ISS must have been inside the Earth’s shadow at the time.

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 5:39 am Interesting geometry here. We’re seeing an unlit side of ISS in front of a sunlit part of the Moon. ISS must have been inside the Earth’s shadow at the time.

The Moon just three days past full, and imaged near midnight. No way that the ISS could be anywhere else than in shadow.

Neat photo of ISS passing over Luna! Think I'll use it as a wallpaper!

"Oh Lord, your sea is so great, and my boat is so small"
Fisherman's prayer, origin obscure.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 2:15 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 5:39 am Interesting geometry here. We’re seeing an unlit side of ISS in front of a sunlit part of the Moon. ISS must have been inside the Earth’s shadow at the time.

The Moon just three days past full, and imaged near midnight. No way that the ISS could be anywhere else than in shadow.

So, would that mean that the photographer had no way to track the ISS visually as it approached conjunction with the Moon? Would Derek Demeter have just aimed the shot and used sufficiently precise data from some source to know when this event would happen? Would he have had to have known this down to a matter of seconds? Maybe a series of shots were taken in rapid fire around the moment of the transit? The high resolution image is wonderfully detailed in its rendering of the space station shape, I guess as you are both saying, there's no light bouncing off of it, it's all a silhouette!

MarkBour wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 7:27 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 2:15 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 5:39 am Interesting geometry here. We’re seeing an unlit side of ISS in front of a sunlit part of the Moon. ISS must have been inside the Earth’s shadow at the time.

The Moon just three days past full, and imaged near midnight. No way that the ISS could be anywhere else than in shadow.

So, would that mean that the photographer had no way to track the ISS visually as it approached conjunction with the Moon? Would Derek Demeter have just aimed the shot and used sufficiently precise data from some source to know when this event would happen? Would he have had to have known this down to a matter of seconds? Maybe a series of shots were taken in rapid fire around the moment of the transit? The high resolution image is wonderfully detailed in its rendering of the space station shape, I guess as you are both saying, there's no light bouncing off of it, it's all a silhouette!

Right, I don't think it would be visible. But the orbit is very well characterized, so capturing it blind shouldn't be a big deal with an accurate time source (like GPS). I posted a capture I made earlier this year. This was around sunset, and moonrise, so the ISS was much farther away than in today's image. But you can clearly see what it looks like in front of the Moon when it is in sunlight. Brighter than the Moon surface, in fact.
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Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 9:49 pm I posted a capture I made earlier this year. This was around sunset, and moonrise, so the ISS was much farther away than in today's image. But you can clearly see what it looks like in front of the Moon when it is in sunlight. Brighter than the Moon surface, in fact.
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20200604_stack.jpg

Thanks, I always appreciate these explanations and examples.

This one is very nice. And I really like the video you made of some of the frames, posted at that link on cloudbait.com.