Many people are not aware that the International Space Station (ISS) is visible from Earth. It is, in fact it can be seen without a telescope under the right conditions: it has to be in light and you have to be in darkness; which makes just before sunrise and just after sunset prime ISS viewing time.
A telescope, even a cheap one, makes for some very impressive viewing as the pictures below show. The following picture, taken by Ralf Vandebergh of Maastricht, Netherlands shows the space shuttle docked to the ISS. For this incredible picture, he used a simple 10″ manually tracked Newtonian telescope.
The next picture, captured by Australian Vincent Miu, shows the shuttle more clearly. Miu’s setup consisted of a 30-centimeter telescope with a $70 webcam in place of the eyepiece.
The final picture, is a little harder to make out. It was taken by Etienne Simian of Saint Martin de Crau, France. The picture was shot during the day.
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