Re: Can I see ISS from Sydney-Australia?

In article <43071b7b$0$25984$afc38c87@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Roska Gozwild <rg@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>Hi
>
>Is it possible to see the International Space Station from Sydney/Australia
>with an 250 mm Dobsonian telescope of type as shown in the following link
>(http://www.bintel.com.au/BT252.html) ?

You can *see* it with the naked eye; it's as bright as Alpha Centauri.

The ISS appears about forty arc-seconds across, so with that telescope
and a 9mm eyepiece it would look about twice the size of the Full
Moon; you'd probably be able to see the solar panels.

However, the ISS moves fast enough across the sky that I suspect it
would be extremely difficult to move the telescope smoothly and
quickly enough to track it within the field of the eyepiece (which is
a region of sky about the size of a thumbnail held at arm's length).
The observations I've seen of ISS have been using telescopes with
quite elaborate computer-controlled mountings.

It's not impossible, but I'd be very impressed if you could do it;
you get one ISS pass a night to practice on and they only last a
couple of minutes. I'd start by finding a good prediction of where
the ISS would be and star-hopping to that region, then wait for the
station to appear (it'll only be in the field for a few seconds) and
desperately try to follow it. You could also practice on reasonably
low-flying planes or moderately distant birds.

Tom
.

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