Raw file processed in PIPP, Autostakkert, RegiStax & Photoshop 2020

"Story behind one of my best International Space Station (ISS) shot through a small setup"

Time: 19:45 PM Indian Standard Time Location: Greater Noida Extension, Uttar Pradesh, India

Gear: Celestron 5" Maksutov, iOptron MiniTower (operated manually), ZWO ASI120MC-S, ZWO IR/UV Cut Filter.

Details: “This is one of my best shots of the Space Station till date and to catch the SpaceX Crew Dragon along with details of the main structure is a real treat! I have attempted this numerous times in the past and it was sometimes a huge failure. I still remember that my first image looked like a flying mosquito. But past errors have taught me so much,I’d given it some thought, & this time tried new settings with a new tracking approach. I have been planning this shot all week knowing that the ISS would be transiting from my location at a high angle of 62° and -3.6 magnification. The day prior however, the forecast was grim predicting clouds which looked like it might ruin the opportunity. But, as night approached, the clouds turned out to be high altitude thin ones. The ISS pass happened after sunset, so I was running short for time to getting the Maksutov focused and aligned properly with the finderscope before the station flew past. I found a star, used my diy Bahtinov mask to fine tune the focusing just about 5 minutes before the pass. As soon as I saw the station, I started capturing using SharpCap on my laptop and got myself ready to hand track the telescope around. Once it reached the height of around 60°SE, I quickly started to reposition the telescope using my GSO finderscope to keep the station centered. The entire visible transit lasted about 6-7 minutes, but my imaging window was limited to about a minute due to the shades/building structures above my balcony. I ended up taking about 2 minutes of video having hit the record button early. Afterwards, the eagerness to see the results was palpable, rushed inside my room to watch the video & was a bit bummed to see that there didn’t appear to be anything there & all initial frames looks completely black. But when I fast forwarded the raw video then I suddenly saw the first glimpse of ISS. I ran it through PIPP, edited the best image on Photoshop & the result is what you can see here in these images.” It was an amazing experience for me to capture an object moving at a speed of 7.66 km/s with such details through a very basic and small setup. Learning from failures is the key here.