Spectacular views: Dragon and ISS clearly visible over The Netherlands !
July 20, 2016 - 01:35 UTC / 03:35 local time:
Last two nights both the ISS and SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule were
clearly visible over my location (Waalre, The Netherlands).
I got great help of two friends setting up the camera & tracking the spaceships.
In the night of July 19th they were still separated 4 minutes. ISS
already passed when Dragon showed up.
However, in the night (early morning 03:35 local time...) of July 20th
they were separated only 15 seconds / 115km.
One really sees the two 'following' (trailing) each other (ISS is
followed by Dragon).
We had a bit of a challenge with the full moon.
Fortunately, the basketball field helped out a bit as you can see on
this picture:
ISS is the bright stripe, the more dimmed stripe (below) is Dragon.
Exposure (lens open): 10 seconds. ISS was approaching.
Subsequent pictures are here:
My two friends noticed during the final period of the pass that
the Pleiades ("Seven Sisters") were accompanying them:
Well, I finally saw a cargo ship and the ISS passing by together, it
was truly a spectacular view !!