With three ISS passes, two Iridium flares, shuttle Endeavour launch and a shadow transit and the red spot visible on Jupiter I had every reason to feel excited.
The evening started of with the first of three passed of the ISS at 22:27. The sky was rather bright but it could be easily seen. My mother was first to see it and gloated a bit about seeing it before me, right she is too :D
After that I begun to set up my camera to try and capture Iridium 34 which was to flare at -6 at 23:06.44. It was right on time, flaring beautifully and got a great capture in my camera.
There was a strong NLC display so I tried my hand at taking a few shots.
After feeling pleased of taking a good shot I set up my EQ6 Pro and 4" Refractor for an observing session of Jupiter later and while waiting for the shuttle launch.
I decided to turn on my laptop and check for any news updates on the launching on Space.com and sadly the launch was called off due to bad lightning storms around and near the launch site.
I then got my camera set up for the second passing of the ISS at 00:02. I managed to get three attempts at capturing this as it, again, stayed in the sky for almost 4 minutes but with hazy cloud it made the images come out very blue.
My disappointment increased as the cloud began to thicken, drowning out my view of Jupiter - just as it was coming into position for viewing in the scope. I started to pack up at that point but did so slowing in the hope that the clouds would break. Luckily my patience rewarded me but the seeing was disastrous. Some bands and zones could be seen but with image being so turbulent there was no hope of me seeing the red spot or the shadow of Io.
Even more annoying was during this whole time my neighbour decided this would be a great time to turn on the back yard flood light while he took a shower or something in the bathroom. I was very tempted to go banging on his door but with the conditions so poor I just decided to call it a night.
All in all not a bad night, even though spoiled by the usual nasty weather.
Here are a few of the images I took.
Evening sky:
Iridium 34 - Unedited
Iridium 34 - Croped:
NLC Display:
ISS Pass
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