Spearing the Great Bear

Yesterday evening, after a day of rain, the sky suddenly cleared and allowed me to test my Satellite Catcher. I've modified it from the inclinometer with the expedient of attaching a compass with bluetac to the wooden base.



Anyway, I checked on Heavens Above for a good pass, no Iridiums, but the ISS was going to be a doozy, sailing right through the bowl of the big dipper. I gathered the time, Altitude and Azimuth bearings so that I could point the SatCatcher in the right place and setup in the garden. After a rough level with the inbuilt level on the tripod, I used the protractor and compass to align and fired a test shot. All looked good, so I had a look around with my bins. This was a total wash, as I was unable to find much of interest to see, bit of a shame really, but never mind. As the time approached I got ready. I could already see the ISS rising through the sky at an incredible rate and I had to try really hard not to fire the camera early thinking I was going to miss. At the predicted time, I triggered the shutter for a 30 second exposure. The results was spot on with the prediction and proves that the SatCatcher works perfectly.



I'm really pleased it worked so well. There's a really bright flare forecast for Saturday night, I hope the skies are clear for it.