International Space Station

Visitors to the Observatory often ask whether it’s possible to see the International Space Station (ISS) through the telescope. I finally decided to give it a try, aided by new features in TheSky X, software that controls my mount. It’s a bit tricky to follow, since you need to set up for high magnification and the satellite moves rapidly across the sky. But after a few failed attempts, I was able to capture this movie on August 4, 2014 around 10:10 pm. The sounds you hear are the of the mount tracking the satellite and the dome rotating (near the end of  the video) to keep the slit in the proper orientation.