Tracking SATELLITES from my Tokyo balcony, with an amateur telescope!!
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2020
- This is my very first attempt at trying to track and capture a satellite with my telescope and camera, and I can't believe it actually it actually worked! Join me on my quest to track and image satellites.
I had no idea at the time of filming, but what I tracked was this satellite:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISIS_(s...)
Launched in 1969!
My next stop: the ISS!! Of course there is a tropical storm passing through Japan right now, so that will have to wait. Still, this is very encouraging!
Software used: www.heavenscape.com/
I will be purchasing the full version when my trial expires.
My Instagram: / cuivlazygeek
My Facebook page: / cuivlazygeek
#astrophotography #satellitetracking - Наука та технологія
Awesome, i will try this out. I love photographing satellite flybys and the iss.
As a ham radio operator I track amateur radio satellites with my beam antennas on a remote controlled rotator. The ISS has amateur radios on board and most of the astronauts are licensed amateur radio operators. When they are not on the radio, they switch their radio to repeater mode for us to use from the ground. The ham radio antenna rotators only adjust about every five or ten degrees of satellite/ISS travel, so not useful with a telescope. I've been wanting to find a way to use my Celestron AVX EQ mount to track the ISS but didn't know how. Your video has given me some ideas. My goal is to capture video of the ISS while I'm talk on the radio to or through it. Thanks for posting this video three years ago! 😃
Man oh man! Your putting out two videos a day! You're a Rock Star!
I hope it's UA-cam messing up, I think I uploaded once a day!! :D But it's still a very high rhythm...!
Very exciting stuff! Sat on the edge of my seat :)
Who expected suspense in astronomy or astrophotography?? It was a lot of fun, I really want to track and capture the ISS next!
Cuiv , I know right now you are off youtube right now , hope all is well and you are not burned out, I just found this program and trying to get it to work, no luck yet. I was doing a 2 star alignment with my EQ6rPro but did not think about plate solving with NINA , have got to try it. I also want to image ISS with this , hard to do it by just tracking with the red dot in equatorial . Anyway cant wait to try again ... Hope you get back on soon
SkyTrack makes satellite viewing and imaging a blast. One thing to try is to note whether the ISS will pass close to a bright star. I saw that it was going to pass Regulus one evening and centered on it and started shooting a sequence a little before the ISS was to pass by. I then caught a sequence of it grazing Regulus. I didn't get anything useable because I overexposed the ISS. But I'm ready for next time!
Hi, I want to do that, what app to you use to see witch bright star the ISS will pass close ?
Hi Cuiv, whilst imaging the sun i had a plane transit . I now intend to get the iss in transit. With Website ' ISS transit finder ' and some practice nightime satellite tracking , thanks ..
Too cool! Looking forward to the video of the ISS!
You and me both! I need to actually get an opportunity first :)
It looked like a space missle to me. :) Thank you for sharing.
This is awesome. I've got to give it a try.
It's a lot of fun! I was really surprised it actually worked!
Here he goes again , another video already! :) very interesting I often wondered if this could be done. The Bunny hop method of jumping to edge of frame and letting the object fly through makes a lot of sense. Have you tried using the Sharp Cap bullseye plate solve (The one on the scope control panel , not the "all sky" one the main drop down (they are actually not the same)) This is very fast and effective if you are within 15 degrees of your target. Then you would not have to dip out to Nina to do it. Just a suggestion.
Whaaaaaaat I didn't realize there was an independent plate solve feature in Sharpcap! Thank you!! I will try this next time!
What is also cool is to photo the Geosynchronous satellites, you will find some interesting things like spy satellites that do not show up in any satellite catalog. You will see some that are stacked vertically which are parked there and no longer in use. They will look like stars but then you say to yourself " that's not a star". Best to do after sunset so the satellites are still in daylight. Nice work!!!
Yes! Geosynchronous satellites actually annoyed me with a DSO pic once, because they "move" in the frame so slowly! (Since they're unmoving, but the scope tracks at sidereal rate, they appear as small, faint streaks in the frame). And I was exactly you "This is no star, it's a space station!" :p Now I'm just waiting to have some ISS passes coinciding with good weather!
Cool, will give it a try....
Have fun!
Wow that is so cool. I have purchased the same software and need to use it with my iOptron MiniTower Mount. But what i found one issue is that after connecting with iOptron MiniTower the software never shows the circle ⭕ where my Telescope is pointed in the sky. So i asked the Developer to make some changes and after that i got a beta version which looks fine. Need to test this someday. I am so excited after watching your video. Have you tried with your iOptron MiniTower also? If yes then please do share the video link here.
Thanks..!!
Hi.
Do you know if it is possible to import the tracking data of the satellite in EQMOD with the good AC and DEC speed and then activate the personalized tracking speed ( last button to the right)?
Thank’s for these great videos!
JM (France Côte d’Azur).
Salut JM!
Mmmmh, je ne sais pas. It may be possible, but I wouldn't know how. The problem with tracking directly is that the mount would be always "shaking" so probably difficult to take good pictures - the jump and wait approach seems to work well for me! You're welcome, and thanks for watching!
Hi Cuiv, is there a reason to use capture with a loop in NINA rather than the livesview option?
The liveview was always janky in NINA - loop capture simply works better. Liveview has been the source of a lot of issues, and in future versions, liveview button will just loop exposures, as far as I understand it.
Hey Cuiv you’re videos are on point ! I’m having issues with my flats over correction and causing issues with my final image since you are banging out videos can you make one on how flats can over correct and possibly a fix for it
Mmmmh flat over correction tends to be unique to a flat-taking method or a camera. Or a problem with the flat frame calibration. What camera are you using? If you have a 1600MM or 294MC, make sure that either your flats are longer than 1-2s, or if that's not possible, that you calibrate your flats with 0.1s bias frames (not lower!) for the 1600MM, and 2s "bias" frames for the 294 (for the 294 you'd really want to avoid short flats altogether). Or , at first, try to apply your flats without any dark or bias calibration, see if that helps. I'm adding that to video making ideas!
Cuiv, The Lazy Geek yes those are the two cameras that I am using and I’m using ADU of 24-26k and 1-5 second with SGP flats wizard and I also tried with NINA and get the final looking pretty bad
i do time lapse of satellites - sats make streaks in photo - low tech but i enjoy it -
usually get 5 ish shots of each satellite - canon 70d w 18x55 - Heavens Above for satellite tracking info -
ISS moves so much faster. I did several attempts to photograph it using my EQ6-R Pro mount, but it just wasn't possible. I think Alt/Az mount is more suitable for the task. I like your enthusiasm, and I really hope you'd be able to do it.
Thanks for the tip! Very good to know, I think I'll try with my AZ Mount Pro then... Or maybe wait for an ISS lunar or solar transit... Anyway, I will try and thank you!
All the videos I’ve seen of folks tracking ISS are doing it manually. Hmmm
You need a fast moving mount for ISS, it moves all most 4 deg/sec.
Vixen GP with SS2K goto can move 5 deg/sec.
It was even advertised back than for use of satellite tracking.
I know the Mead LX-200 can track sats well, also.
I don't know about the newer mounts?
@@CuivTheLazyGeek The current version of SkyTrack has a specific (legacy) interface for the AZ Mount Pro. Make sure you have the latest AZMP firmware though.
How did it handle the flip? Did it flip or continue and strike the mount?
The satellite I tracked seemed to go parallel to the Meridian so no flip was necessary. I haven't tried since - the few early evening clear skies were dedicated to other adjustments... I'll make sure to double check when I can!
Kind of funny that we always get satellites when we don’t want them, but initially have trouble when we intentionally look for them! ;)
For sure!
Lol I had the exact same idea and looked at the exact same software... and here is your video... perfect :D
You might want to adjust the Leap Frog settings on the top right for constant tracking and then just use sharpcap as if you are shooting a planet :D
Excellent! it's a lot of fun :) As for the Leap Frog settings, I indeed tried to adjust them for constant tracking, but it's better to actually just let the object go through the FOV, so there is no mount related vibration!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thanks for the tip, I will definitely try it if the clouds ever go away 😄
Great minds... i did a video very similar to this with the same software a few weeks ago... albeit using sky simulation and ascom simulation
I subscribed to your channel, I will look back at that video - I am so happy this software exists!
Thats amazing please followup with an ISS capture
Definitely will! I need to wait for passes of the ISS well overhead! It hasn't happened yet...
I’ve never thought about doing this before. Huh.
Yeah it's fairly recent for me too - and then I was just shocked at how easy it was to actually do, if you have a motorized mount!
I had to laugh when I saw this, because I work at a satellite laser ranging station. Welcome to my world. :)
Wow, that sounds like a really interesting job! I'm sure your equipment is a lot less janky than mine though ;)
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Well, the photometry gear and the laser, maybe....but the scope we use is a modified C11. BTW, hoping for first light on my ASI533MC-Pro tomorrow night...I also have wind problems. :)
I am looking at changing to NINA and noticed that you did a plate solve to get close to the satellite. Did you have to enter the coordinates of the satellite you were looking for to get close to the satellite? Couldn't you just have used Sky Tracker go the satellite instead of having to do a platesolve using NINA?
As far as I remember, I used the plate-solve to just align the mount,e.g. so it points accurately. If the mount was already aligned, then no need to do that
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I assume you mean polar alignment? I plan on using my Alt-Az Mount so I won’t need a Polar Alignment.
@@conradsanders8475 No, just the mount alignment/sky model (like when you start the mount with a hand controller, it will align by slewing to a couple of stars for you to center). But it's been a while since I made this video!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek ok
Hey! Just getting into Astrophotography and living in Tokyo - I’m really excited to discover that you live in a Tokyo too!
Are there any communities for folks doing astrophotography that you would recommend?
Welcome to the hobby! It's a lot of fun!
I haven't really found proper communities in Japan to be honest... people go to star parties that are announced in the specialist magazines here. But since I'm an introvert, I don't really bother :D
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I would be too busy for such a thing as well haha! Do you get your gear from local shops, or do you order them from overseas? I found starbase.co.jp but they don’t always have a good selection
@@DavidSomersHarris There's Kyoei Tokyo, Kyoei Osaka, Schmitt (シュミット）, Yahoo Auctions, etc.
Have you tried this since? How does it handle a meridian flip?
Unfortunately the weather hasn't let me test since! If does feel however that it will force a flip, as it issues slew commands, and the mount would flip as necessary (which would mean tracking would be lost). I'll post an update once I know more!
It would only be lost during the flip, shouldn’t it go to the right spot when it gets there?
Yes it will do a meridian flip as configured in your mount and will catch up to the satellite after the flip.
You caught something at 7:52 !
Yeah, good eye! I wasn't saving the images at the time, but you're right! I don't know what it was... if it had been a satellite, I think SkyTrack would have had it in its list? So something natural? No idea! Thanks for pointing it out!
Sky track
"Hey gays"
Couldn't download - Virus detected
FIXED !!!! fhewww this is to kool , now i have to try it on the next clear night with at least 200-400 MM then the big scope... 834mm F5.8
Phew! Glad you could get it! It's going to be a lot of fun indeed, I hope you enjoy it!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek cant wait to try it out...