ISS Solar Transit - 28th April 2012

In a small gap in the clouds I finally succeeded in recording a transit of the Sun by the ISS.
Sky was 95% cloudy and a small gap only appeared with about 20secs before the due time for the transit.
I was still focusing with 10secs left!
Hopefully, I will have more time to prepare for the next one.
Unfortunatley, the video has lost quite a bit of quality.

So you were paying attention to Thierry Legault's excellent talk then Michael! I must have a go at this myself at some stage.

Paul.

thats cool. i plan on having a go on the 24 May when iss will transit the moon in kildare

Funnily enough Paul, I've been trying to capture this for the last couple of years.
It's quite rare that a transit will occur exactly at one's back yard.
The ground track is only a few km wide.
Secondly, the weather must be clear.
Third, it needs to be on a day when I'm off work.
Putting those three factors together, and you have very low odds.

I used Calsky.com for a couple of years but every time a transit occured at my house, it was cloudy or I was at work.
After a while, I just gave up on the project.
Since Thierry's talk, I thought I might as well give it a try again.
Amazingly, there is another transit of the ISS across the Sun tomorrow - twice in one wekend!
Hopefully the weather will be better.

manic_dave wrote: thats cool. i plan on having a go on the 24 May when iss will transit the moon in kildare

24th may - that's a long ways off.
The orbital elements will have changed signifiantly by then.
To get the most accurate results, you would need to be checking calsky.com every few days.

24th May? That will come quick enough, Michael. It is the day before my birthday. However, huge congratulations on the brilliant video. Please do post the time for the 24th May. Valerie is buying me one last great eyepiece. More about that anon.

Aubrey.