Menu

Finally captured Kepler tonight! The image is Kepler passing by Saturn through my 6" reflector with a 20 second exposure at ISO 3200. Click the "Large" links for best views.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe this is the first and only capture of a Kepler satellite pass, at least by amateur astronomers/astrophotographers.

Medium || Large

And the same image only inverted. You can really see Saturn's moons in this one:

Medium || Large

See this post on how you can find sighting opportunities in your area.

Tags: saturn kepler || 0 comments

CalSky.com has added STS-119 (Space Shuttle Discovery) and the Kepler satellite to their database. To find sighting opportunities in your area, go to http://www.calsky.com, enter your location and store using your email address. Once you have your location setup you can view a list of passes by using the following links.

Kepler:
http://www.calsky.com/csephem.cgi?&object=Satellite&number=34380

STS-119:
http://www.calsky.com/csephem.cgi?&object=Satellite&number=99999

For me there are passes this evening of both satellites, but the clouds are thick. If you happen to use this info and are able to capture any passes, please let me know and I will be sure to post here.

[stephen]

Tags: iss nasa kepler sts-119 discovery calsky || 0 comments

NASA's Kepler is set for launch tonight. I've put together some feeds for NASA TV. These are higher resolution than the one on NASA's site. Coverage starts at 8:30 p.m. EST with the lauch set for 10:49:57 p.m. EST

300k
500k
1200k

Tags: nasa kepler launch || 0 comments