I had big plans last night to drive down the coast and try to get a picture of the ISS transit of the moon during the eclipse. I was packed and ready with scope, camera, and SW radio for a time signal. Unfortunately the coast was shrouded in fog and high clouds, and after consulting GOES-West and some web cams, I decided not to risk the drive down PCH to get to the centerline. My research did get me intrigued about the idea of capturing an ISS lunar or solar transit, though, and introduced me to a great website for this and other events.
Tuned as I was to what the ISS was up to, I noticed it would be nicely visible from our house yesterday evening. I took this picture almost as an afterthought, so I didn’t set up the shot very well. The green blotch reflection of the full moon, below the bright ISS dot, is a good lesson in the flare potential of wide open fast lenses. Or that you need to take the UV filter off for such shots.
50mm f1.4 1/80 Sec ISO 3200
Scott's Sky Shots 
A lunar eclipse occurred here this morning at sunrise (oddly, moon and sun were supposed to be barely above the horizon at the same time) but I slept through it after going to sleep all depressed over SF beating the Nationals in the NLDS. Too bad as it was a beautiful morning.
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Yeah, sorry ’bout that. Giants are a tough team in October. I don’t suppose you were at that epic 18 inning game? That would be a tough one to swallow. I’m a Giant’s fan, but a very bad one who generally waits until the WS to start watching games.
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ISS transits of the illuminated Moon are photographically challenging because it ideally requires just as short of an exposure time to freeze the motion as solar transit (~ 1/1000 s), but you don’t have the same illumination. A transit during a lunar eclipse is a fascinating idea but I don’t know how you would pull it off photographically.
I hope you get lots more opportunities. Calsky is a requisite resource for this kind of fascinating and challenging endeavor.
I have taken photos of several ISS transits of the Sun, including a double transit from the same location separated by 4 orbits: http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/390739-rare-iss-double-solar-transit/?hl=%2Biss+%2Bdouble+%2Btransit#entry5002253
I also attempted to photograph an ISS occultation of Epsilon Orion, but by my calculations I was a few 10’s or 100’s of meters from the center line: http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/392348-iss-occultation-of-eps-orion-need-scholarly-input/?hl=%2Biss+%2Bdouble+%2Btransit
My next challenge is to video a pass of some duration, slewing the scope real-time to match the path. I have a joystick and some software, but it is proving quite complex.
Good luck, and I look forward to you sharing your challenges and success!
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Those are fantastic pictures, Jim (and I made you a friend on Cloudy Nights, though I’ve yet to post myself). It’s nice to know I have an expert handy as I explore this type of target shooting further. For instance, I was thinking I could get by with 1/400 sec.
You have nice gear, too.
Basically, I was hoping to get lucky. My T3 writes slightly less than 2 fps raw, so I really only had one shot at it with a .74 second transit (your 5D must sound like a machine gun). The eclipse wasn’t total at that point, so I was hoping for a shot over the lit part (about 1/5th of the moon) which the ISS crossed first. Made me wonder how accurate the CalSky times are, and if they were calculated at first contact or maximum (I assume the latter). Anyway, it was a _real_ long shot, but I was disappointed to be clouded out anyway.
Supposedly a lunar eclipse ISS transit has yet to be captured (partial solar has been done). Somebody must have got this one, but I haven’t seen anything on the web so far. Centerline went through LA. There were clouds all down the coast, but I predict we’ll see an image soon.
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Unfortunately, one cannot view the pics without being a member of Cloudy nights.
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I’d be happy to post them here, Jim, if you like.
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Clarification to the above: The ISS transit of the Moon as a trail in a long duration exposure I believe is what you really intended. Now THAT is a cool idea!
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