The Shuttle, The Station, and The Swan

This photo was a colaboration between my wife Pam and myself. Many times when I go out at night Pam joins me and we spend the time talking and she looks for satellites. Well on this particular night she noted that Heavens Above was reporting that the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station would be visible within about 15 seconds of each other. We printed off the star charts and noticed that both would take nearly identical paths and pass through Cygnus. This shot was particularly tricky in that it was just at the end of twilight and I feared I would over expose it!

Note: This photo won 1st place at the 2002 Mid-Atlantic Star Party Astrophotography Contest for the category "Non-Telescopic"

Date:	10/16/2002
Location:	Gastonia, NC
Optics:	50mm at f/4
Exposure:	5 min
Camera:	Olympus OM-1
Mount:	Losmandy G11