Thoughts from Starlight Cascade

On Launch day, Saturday 2020 May 30th, we observed a late evening pass of the International Space Station (ISS) and the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

We used Heavens Above which stated the Crew Dragon was to come first. We had heavy intermittent cloud and did not see Dragon. A couple of minutes later around 21:51 EDTthe ISS appeared and we started imaging it, 5 second exposures at first (it was still quite bright outside), then 10 second exposures with the Canon T7i DSLR at 800ISO.

ISS and Crew Dragon

Just the 2nd last shot with the ISS descending into the eastern horizon and cloud, we spotted another bright object on the same orbital track. This is the best image of the two together in one frame. The ISS is the brighter of the two objects and closest to the horizon. The Crew Dragon is the dimmer and is higher up in the frame.

After hearing from the rest of you, we believe the ISS was leading and Dragon trailing. Heavens Above was possibly wrong due to Dragon firing engines to change orbits multiple times and HA was not uptodate?

Crew Dragon Flare

One more image, this of the Crew Dragon flaring. Probably just a reflection on the solar panel, probably not an engine firing as I think those would be too dim to see. We both saw this visually as well.

Reviewing the Allsky1pi camera captures from last night, we find two hits!

20 sec exposure with the ISS only (near center) and

25 sec exposure of the last bit of the ISS and the Crew Dragon behind it (lower left)

good showing of all of the intermittent cloud we had. at times it completely blocked out the moon.

ISS only

ISS and Crew Dragon