Hi Robert, you wrote: > > I've been visiting Mr. Josef Huber's website on his observations of the ISS. > I'm interested in trying out those type of observations where the spaceframe > can be observed, not just the reflected light. I'm going to be obtaining > 20x80 super giant astronomy binoculars to advance my observations a bit, > amongst my other astronomy interests.. I'm interested to know if anyone else > has these high power binoculars and what their results were if they observed > MIR [ when it was still up there. ] and the ISS. Maybe we can compare > results...Also, has anyone done this with the Meade ETX telescope series??? > > I have been using Miyauchi 20/37x100 binoculars for about three years now, and love them! I have observed the ISS (with structure) on many occasions! 99% of the time I was able to see some type of structure with the 37x ocular. I have had the best luck when I observe an overhead pass, (ISS closest approach). With the 20x ocular in place I have seen structure twice. All other times, just reflected light. At these low powers, everything has to be perfect to see structure. The attitude of the spacecraft is very important! and also its pass position, (low altitude or high altitude). With some kind of filter, I would see much more I believe, but so far have not tried any. Most of the times, it is just too bright to see structure, but I still try every opportunity I can. 37 power presents the best chance for me to see structure. I would be very careful when buying 20x80 binos. I have seen quite a few and most all brands I have tested, were not very impressive. These models I'm talking about were all around $300 to $700 and looking through them seemed to appear very tunnel like with small FOV's. Eye relief was very poor on most models also. The bottom line is to try them before you buy! Watch out for mail order, unless you've tried them beforehand. The best bino for the money in my opinion are the Fuji's 10x70 and the 16x70. But you most likely will not see any structure on the ISS. About the ETX, I just sold my ETX 90. Never again! Bino's are the only way to go! There are military bino's on the web for around $1400.00 that are 25/40x100. I haven't tried these or talked to any one that has purchased these, but I'm very curious to see how they perform. My advice to you is to go to as many star parties as you can and hopefully get to try some big binos. Again, I have come to the conclusion that in order to see structure on a regular basis, you must have at least 40-50x. I will email you privately pictures of my rig if your interested to give you some ideas on how to build a stand for one, once you select a pair. I have also tried my hand at imaging the ISS with a web cam and an adapter I machined for the web cam to fit in the eyepiece of the binos. I guide with the free ocular, the other has the web cam in it, and manually track the ISS. So far, I'm still in the beginning stages of this setup and have not been very successful. The web cam does not seem to be sensitive enough to capture the very small light of the ISS with most of the FOV in darkness. My FOV is to large I think. Too much black fools the ccd circuitry I think also. Oh well, more experimentation is needed! Good luck in finding the right binos, Once you do, you will be very happy! Hope this helps! Russ Bessom - russbessom@desurf.com Zweibruecken Germany Lat 49.14.0 N / Long 7.19.0 E - 325m ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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