Moon Picture + Space station?

My wife and I were out last night at about 9PM, still light though but the moon was clear so she decided to take a few shots...
She happened to notice an aircraft going quite fast across the moon so she snapped it.
If you look at the bottom of the moon in the picture you can see the "hardware" there, it certainly is far too angular to be an aircraft and was also really shifting which makes me think it was the Space Station....
Shot taken on a Pentax K5 with a 55-300 WR zoom @300mm

What do you think? has anyone got access to the overfly times of the space station?

Andy

Unfortunately looks a bit like a very small artefact from the size of image that's uploaded! Any chance of a 'blown-up' crop section to see more clearly?

Personally I am doubtful it is the space station, certainly when taken with a 300mm lens.

You can check where it was visible here: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/

Normally it just looks like a bright fast moving light. Brighter than most satellites, but otherwise with a similar movement.

The ISS is not visible for me in the Netherlands at the moment. I don't know where you are.

highly recommend this link

Put in your location and you can get events tailored to your exact position.

The ISS link is the international space station and once you get in there you're looking for the lowest Magnitude/Brightness value. That seems counter intuitive I know -3.2 for example is a really bright pass overhead.

Then look for times when it will suit you, usually like around 7:30pm to 11:00pm depending on your situation.

Also look for entries with the highest max elevation/altitude. 90 degrees is straight up from your location. 15 degrees is essentially right on the horizon etc.

If you then clink on an entry you get a map that will guide you if you hold it up above your head and align it to north.

Hope those very quick instructions help somewhat.

Frankly I doubt you'd get that level of detail with a 300mm lens. At night time the station looks like a bright star moving slowly initially and then really quickly when it's right above you.

The site looks a bit clunky but the content is very powerful.

On reflection in this zoomed in picture it does look like an aircraft, but it didn't appear to be last night, nor did its trajectory seem to be in keeping with is attitude...

200% zoom

Looks slightly like the Starship Enterprise...

That's what I was thinking too!

Myles

I've no idea what it is, and cant add any more theories. But what a nice thread you posted...

Definitely a plane. Wish it was the Starship Enterprise though .

Looks like a T-Tailed aircraft flying from left to right and nose pointing slightly up as seen in picture. Maybe a 146 or C17 cargo lifter something of that general appearance.

The Space Station appears as a very bright light moving reasonably fast and in a fixed arc..very impressive when you see it. I believe you can also see the Chinese equivalent from the ground as well although not as bright.

Well if you say it was moving too fast for a plane I believe you. It does resemble something akin to a C17 apart from the tail seems disproportionately large.

Cool pic

was it the one featured in The Sport "newspaper" all those years ago....?

It's Boing C17 Globemaster.

Best regards

Thanks for that link, very useful.