I haven’t photographed the Space Station in quite some time. I have been quite busy in recent months, it was great to get back out and #SpotTheStation.

Last night, I was editing my photos from the John Mayer concert for the photo story when I got a notification about an upcoming ISS pass, 20 minutes out. I looked outside, clear skies. Let’s go.

I checked heavens-above.com to see generally where the pass would be flying and saw that it would be peaking highest in the Northeast part of the sky.

I thought initially:

“Go to the Engineering Fountain, it will be easy.”

That is where I always go, and it was just that – easy. I wanted something more challenging that I hadn’t done 50 times (literally).

VOSS model. Bingo.

I got my things together, and headed for VOSS.

I thought it was much closer than it was (5 minute walk, maybe, I told myself), I was realizing quickly I would only have a minute or two once I arrived to set up and take test shots.

I have shot at the VOSS model before: (December 2015)

I quickly recalled the settings I used for it and took a test shot. Bang on.

I set the built-in intervalometer on my 7D Mark II to a 1 second interval and set it free.

I ended up with this sequence, stacking all the frames with it flying by in StarStax:

 

After fixing the gaps between the frames as the camera starts each new exposure with Lightroom’s Spot Removal tool I was finished.

hi-res/prints: photos.tmahlmann.com

If you’d like to see more of my Space Station long exposures, click here!

I’ve hoped for a long time to make a full step-by-step tutorial (both textand video tutorials) on how I make these #SpotTheStation images so you can do it too. I am finally putting that into work.

I will be bringing a 2nd camera along with me to several of the next passes I try to photograph and will be using it to record a behind-the-scenes/tutorial video. Looking forward to sharing that with you as soon as it is ready.

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See you tomorrow for another photo story 🙂

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