I saw the ISS for the first time in my life.

[Cooly568]

Today, I went outside at 9:30 PM or so, and saw the ISS.

That tiny dot in the top right corner is the ISS.

I have never seen something other than stars before, so this was nice.

Yes I took the picture on a potato.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Cooly568
Confused left and right.

[Ralathon]

I have never seen something other than stars before, so this was nice.

I'm sure you've seen at least Venus, Jupiter and Mars at some point in your life

Anyway, nice catch. It flew over my place a week ago (together with ATV-5), but I missed it thanks to clouds...

[WooDzor]

I call BS on that statement. You must have seen many planets in your life because they're one of the brightest objects in the night sky, but you just didn't know. Get yourself Stellarium! http://www.stellarium.org/

BTW is there a trick for looking at the ISS through a telescope. I've been unlucky/unable to do so

[KerbMav]

BTW is there a trick for looking at the ISS through a telescope. I've been unlucky/unable to do so

I guess it is moving to fast/to close to earth - you might want to try an automatic targeting system for auto-cannons, getting one though ...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Autonomous-Paintball-Sentry-Gun/

[Seret]

I have never seen something other than stars before, so this was nice.

In that case you should check out the "moon", it'll blow your mind.

[WooDzor]

I guess it is moving to fast/to close to earth - you might want to try an automatic targeting system for auto-cannons, getting one though ...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Autonomous-Paintball-Sentry-Gun/

I was lucky to find a decent working telescope for a reasonable price here in East Africa.. Getting an automated one would mean importing and wasting a full suitcase (otherwise spend on cheese and other goodies) getting it here. The night sky is generally pretty impressive. Stripes on Jupiter + Moons, Rings and moons of Saturn are easily visible here with the telescope.

photo i took through the telescope a couple of months ago from my compound on a clear night.

[cantab]

Nice one OP. It's great to see it flying over and it's hard to miss when it does!

As for viewing it with magnification, that's tricky. I suggest a scope on a high quality manual mount, that you can easily move to follow the ISS. Many motorised mounts can't keep up. Then use a low power, wide angle eyepiece to make things as easy as possible. The ISS has an apparent size about equal to Jupiter, so you only need 30x or so to make out the shape of the station.

The final ingredient is to "lie in wait". Get a chart for your location showing exactly where the ISS will be, point your scope at a spot on it, and wait for the station to enter the view, rather than trying to chase it across the sky.

[Cooly568]

I'm sure you've seen at least Venus, Jupiter and Mars at some point in your life

Anyway, nice catch. It flew over my place a week ago (together with ATV-5), but I missed it thanks to clouds...

Well I mean, first thing I've seen in the sky that I've noticed and been able to clearly say, oh, that's not a plane/star.

But yeah I've seen the Moon.

I'd imagine I have at some point.

[lajoswinkler]

I was lucky to find a decent working telescope for a reasonable price here in East Africa.. Getting an automated one would mean importing and wasting a full suitcase (otherwise spend on cheese and other goodies) getting it here. The night sky is generally pretty impressive. Stripes on Jupiter + Moons, Rings and moons of Saturn are easily visible here with the telescope.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9346020/MUN.jpg

photo i took through the telescope a couple of months ago from my compound on a clear night.

I took the liberty of editing your photo a bit. When you take photos of the Moon and similar monochrome stuff, desaturate your image and adjust the levels to avoid the halo and to get rich black.

It's a good photo you took.

[Dartguy]

Very cool. I watched it go over last night, too. I showed the kids, and my mom saw it for the first time. She was really shocked at how well you can see it and at the stats I gave her about it.

BTW, it was not supposed to be very bright -1.5 magnitude, but at one point it got extremely bright for about 20 seconds.

Cool stuff!

[Motokid600]

It is possible.

Not my pic... Wish it was lol.

[Moss]

I've never been able to see the ISS where I am.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Moss
Mistake

[General Rarity]

Up here in AK you can see the ISS now and then, although I see sat's usually. Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and Venus are visible here too, even in the (not-so-crowded) city of Anchorage. It's fun too see a small dot curving not too high over the horizon. Too bad I never really take any pictures.

[Lukaszenko]

What's also cool is seeing the Iridium flares if you can catch one. The other day I was out hopelessly looking for it on a overcast night, with no stars or planets visible. And then BAM this thing shone right through the clouds for a couple seconds. Holy ****!, I said to myself.

[Discovery173]

Trying to spot the ISS in the night sky is one of my favourite hobbies! Only using the family's camera and an old tripod i could get some nice long-exposition pictures:

[SpaceXray]

I am enjoying watching the ISS here in Australia on holiday and it is quite amazing. On the 11th I'll get a simultaneous pass(ATV+ISS) and this time I hope I can properly capture it with my DSLR, tripod and new remote shutter remote. Last time I overexposed the shot because I had settings for complete dark and the sun only just set. Will post pics.

[lajoswinkler]

I am enjoying watching the ISS here in Australia on holiday and it is quite amazing. On the 11th I'll get a simultaneous pass(ATV+ISS) and this time I hope I can properly capture it with my DSLR, tripod and new remote shutter remote. Last time I overexposed the shot because I had settings for complete dark and the sun only just set. Will post pics.

I've opened a thread dedicated to those simultaneous passes few days ago, feel free to post the material there.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/89438-ATV-5-Georges-Lema%C3%AEtre-night-passes