Satellite Tracker From Houston, Texas - Forums

Topic starter

Sep 19, 2023

First, my region is NOT good for seeing - this is a swamp. But in the winter we can get some very clear skies.

I have been in the space business since 1978 (a long time) and am a member of Seesat (or also known as the Visual Satellite Observers) and have been tracking satellites for a few years. I use a DSLR (a Nikon D300s) and have been taking still images and resolving them at Astrometry.net of course. The thing that I am still working on is trying to get the very accurate time of the observations.

I take ten second exposures and have photographed MANY satellites.

If anyone has similar experience or suggestions about how to know exactly when the shutter opens and closes - can we talk??

I am a trial member so far and hope that people will reply and at least wish me good luck.

Charles
Houston, Texas

Engaging

Quinn Groessl

IOTD Staff

Sep 19, 2023

Are you manually taking the pictures? The best way I can think of is to note the time when you take the picture. I would use https://time.is/for the most accurate timing.

Charles Phillips

Topic starter

Sep 19, 2023

Quinn Groessl:
Are you manually taking the pictures? The best way I can think of is to note the time when you take the picture. I would use https://time.is/for the most accurate timing.

After looking around a LOT, I have an app on my iPhone (cleverly called Time) that gives me very accurate time. Then I manually set it into my camera - that must introduce some errors. But there is not (that I have found) a good way to synch the camera to the computer. I need to know the time of the shutter opening and closing to within tenths of a second.

Charles Phillips

Topic starter

Sep 20, 2023

I should have attached an example photo - here is a Russian upper stage dodging through the clouds. The satellite is the streak in the upper center of the photo.

Bert Pasquale

Sep 20, 2023

I am interested in this also for some work applications. You would need a camera that can sync with a computer/smartphone or has a wifi sync function to set it's internal clock. And it would have to record start times to at least a tenth of a second. Or a remote trigger that can record an accurate time. There's no way I know to manually get 1/10th sec. Maybe, you could hold up a phone (showing the time to fractions of a second) behind your camera and record a video that captures the sound of the camera shutter, then review the video. I definitely wish you good luck! - Bert

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