From London evening passes are over now, so I really wanted to give ISS imaging a go on the last occasion which happened on 1st October. This was one of my favourite types of flyby when the ISS climbs ‘only’ 67° above the horizon. This way we can look at the ISS from a slight angle, perfect for what I wanted to capture – Soyuz MS-18 docked to Nauka module.

On the 28th September the crew undocked from the Rassvet module, did a fly around ISS and redocked to the Nauka module for the first time in Nauka’s history. They took some incredible photos of the ISS.

 

 

After docking to ISS I only had high elevation passes which doesn’t do any justice as I look directly up to ISS and the Soyuz can’t be identified. But the maximum 67°of elevation pass was ideal, mainly because the station is already close enough to resolve good details (458km at its highest and closest point in the sky) and I look at it from sideways.  Here is the flyby forecast for 1st October from Heavens Above website.

 

 

When imaging ended I quickly looked back on what I captured and was very happy to spot the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft right at the end of the Nauka module. From 6 frames I made these animations in both black and white and colour as well, which perfectly shows the MS-18 as a tiny white blob hanging right below the Nauka module. See the little help below to locate the Soyuz on my animations.

 

 

Render image of the International Space Station with currently docked spacecrafts

 

All good frames of the over head pass in one animation

 

This animation only includes the best frames with the most details. The iROSA new augmented solar arrays just can’t stop amaze us, rapidly becoming one of the most noticeable features on ISS. The Nauka module is also very easy to find now with its elongated shape.

 

Soyuz MS-18 docked to the Nauka module – taken by Thomas Pesquest

 

Equipment
Skywatcher 250/1200 Flextube dobson telescope
Zwo ASI224MC camera
TeleVue 2.5x powermate
TMS-Astro Eq-platform

London, UK

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