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Anonymous
Can you get a semi-well defined picture of the space station with a 200mm telephoto lens? If not, what size lens would you think is needed to get such a shot? I know it can be done with a telescope. And I know that I can get a decent telescope at the cost of telephoto lens over 200mm. I was just wondering out of curiosity.


This is a streak I made of the Space Station passing overhead about an hour ago.
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>> Anonymous
probably not clearly, i can make it out with my 800mm reflector but it isnt really big unless you use a tiny eyepiece
>> Anonymous
How do you find the space station in the first place? The few times i've used a telescope i've had trouble finding major planets.
>> fence !!POey2hdozCZ
i honestly haven't seen a decent picture yet with telescopes. i remember seeing a grainy photo taken with meade's 16" schmidt cassegrain (something like 2000mm), and even then (at 15 grand or whatever it costs) it wasn't anything to write home to mom about.

i'm afraid it's streaks only.
>> Anonymous
>>295866
the only telescopes that give nice looking pictures are refractors, and any refractor that's got a decent sized aperture compared to a cheap reflector is somewhere around 4000 bucks.
astrophotography sucks let the hubble do it
>> Anonymous
Thanks for the replys.
l I'm afraid you guys are right. It would be pretty difficult to get a picture of the station.

I heard somewhere that this coming Wednesday night, the space station is going to pass in front of Venus (the lower right dot in the photo; Jupiter is the upper dot.). I thought since the position it is going to pass through is known, I could set up a camera pointing at Venus and just rapid fire my camera as the station passes in front.
>> Anonymous
yeh you can get telescopes specifically for astrophototraphy... and you just get a t-ring and t-adaptor to attatch your camera.. most range from f/8 - f/13 and have a focal distance anywehere from 300mm right up to about 1920mm

im thinking of getting one for arouns $499 (AUD) and thats 1250mm and its a skywatcher maksultov cassegrain
>> Anonymous
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Quote from another forum. attaching comparison pic from a Tamron 200-500mm (right) to the scope.

I'm using a Sky-Watcher 100ED APO astro scope, a 2" prime focus adapter and a Nikon T-Ring. Pretty cool stuff!

Added note, the sky watcher is effectively around f9
>> Anonymous
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>>295858i honestly haven't seen a decent picture yet with telescopes
http://www.astrophoto.fr/iss_atlantis_transit.html