Mercury, Moon, Venus, Saturn & Discovery from this morni

I was up early this morning to catch the last pass of the undocked space shuttle Discovery & ISS.
The scene was truly amazing.
I hadn't planned on photographing it as I reckoned it would be too bright
to record the Shuttle / ISS trails and get the planets also but
I couldn't get over how bright Mercury was!
(Apparent Mag -0.30 )
At first I thought it was a star but after looking at my print out from
Heavens Above I soon realized it was the elusive little planet.
(far left in the pic)
The waining crescent Moon was still very bright at Mag -10.32 but the earth shine was
equally bright.
Venus? what can I say.
It's just sooooo bright! Mag -4.33! Awesome!
(I promised myself to get some webcam shots before the end of the month)
Saturn is still respectable at Mag 0.80 nestled under the belly of Leo and
quite obvious (more so than I would have thought)

So the scene was set and now all that was required was to wait for the
spaceships to pass over in orbit.
Heavens Above yet again got it bang on and first came some of the
supply modules, very faint indeed.
Next Discovery, (the streak to the right of the Moon)
not as bright as the predicted Mag 2.22 but I'm sure that
has got to do with the angle of the craft relative to your location.
Finally and unmistakably, the ISS.
Alway an amazing sight.
I had hoped to get a 'double streak' showing the Shuttle and ISS
undocked but the Shuttle was a good bit ahead and if I had left the
shutter open any longer I would have overexposed the shot
and lost everything bar the moon & venus.
So at least something is better than nothing.
There was a fire on the horizon which caused a strange effect on the Moon & Venus but I think it looks cool.
I still managed to get an ISS trail but I think the one made by Discovery
is a little more interesting as it's basically shows it making its way back to Earth as the early morning commuters on the motorway make their way to work.


Anyway enough babble, Here's the shot.

great shot frank. Well done.

What a superb bit of planning Frank, well done!

Lovely photo Frank, love the colours of the oncoming twilight and the fire adds an interesting effect, looks a bit like a comet.

Proves what can be achieved with careful planning.

A Beautiful artistic image, great job!

Bart.

Nice, interesting shot Frank! It's always nice when you get up early in the morning and get a reward like that.

I had hoped to get a 'double streak' showing the Shuttle and ISS
undocked but the Shuttle was a good bit ahead and if I had left the
shutter open any longer I would have overexposed the shot
and lost everything bar the moon & venus.

Would it have helped if you had perhaps put the lens cover on until the ISS made its predicted pass and then removed the cover? Or is that just going to lead to noise and 'hot pixels'?

Seanie.