International Space Station (for some reason) makes it sound enormous, but even tremendous things are hard to spot from 542 km (337 mi) away. At that distance, the station appears 1/60th the size of the width of your pinky finger held at arm’s length—51 arcseconds wide.

The picture above is a composite of six photographs, each taken within a single second.

Equipment:

• Nikon D610
• iOptron skyguider pro
• iOptron tripod
• Sigma 150-600mm 5-6.3 Contemporary
• Cheap intervalometer
• Thousand Oaks solar film (gaffer’s taped over my lens hood)

Software

• transit-finder.com
• SkEye (for polar alignment during the daytime—point at σ-Octantis!)
• AtomicClock for accurate time
• Ventusky + skippysky + clear dark sky for cloud reports