FW: accuracy of ISS / Venus transit track

From: Ron (robischr@nticorporation.com)
Date: Fri Jun 04 2004 - 14:04:40 EDT

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    John, Tom,
    
    I recorded an ISS solar transit a couple of weeks ago near sunset when the
    sun was just 7 degrees above the horizon.  The video was, indeed, poor, but
    I manage to record about 18 frames of ISS.  You can read my write up of the
    event and view my 2MB animated .gif of the transit at:
    
    http://users.erols.com/robisch/may22solar.html
      
    Field of view in the video was about 8.25' x 6.2'.  All I can say is high
    magnification does not mix well with such a low altitude!
    
    -Ron Robisch
    Monrovia, MD
    
    
    
    From: "John Locker" <john@satcom.freeserve.co.uk>
    Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 18:24:49 +0100
    To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org>
    Subject: Re: accuracy of ISS / Venus transit track
    Resent-From: SeeSat-L@satobs.org
    Resent-Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 13:25:10 -0400
    
    The lowest elevation pass I have on file Tom is that of  Aug 29 2003 ( had
    forgotten about it )
    The sun was at 15 degs , and ISS had an angular diameter of just 4.1" at a
    range of 1125km
    
    I'd be surprised if you could get any useable results below that elevation
    as you would need a near full disk image , and the station would be almost
    invisible.
    
    A smaller FOV could obviously be used , but then that would defeat the
    object as only a tiny portion of the solar disk would be in frame.
    
    John.
    
    
    
    >
    > I hope someday to capture a transit of the ISS across a rising/setting Sun
    or
    > Moon- though at that distance & seeing, the ISS is likely only to be a
    small,
    > indistinct blob- otherwise, the effect of atmospheric ray-bending is just
    a
    > small technical point ;-)
    >
    
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