Contrail spotting April 2007

Planespotting in the upper atmosphere! All pictures, reports or whatever question about upper level traffic come here

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Robin_Bamps

Post by Robin_Bamps »

Hi Stef,

OO-THA was heading for AMS for maintenance with KLM.

Source : Scramble.nl

Regards, Robin Bamps.

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contrailwatcherUK
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Post by contrailwatcherUK »

Skystef, Nice TNT :P
Poor conditions here too.
Image
Urrrrrgh :(

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contrailwatcherUK
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Post by contrailwatcherUK »

Hi,

A bit hazy yesterday, these were the only sharp enough images after a bit of photoshopping:
CKS424 heading W:
Image

COA42 heading E then took a sharp turn heading SE at MID:
Image

A 737 in the distance in the evening:
Image

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Skystef
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Post by Skystef »

Ok thx for sharing, fine to know your scope has been repaired :lol:

Now, I won't be anoying, but is it possible when uploading pictures not going wider than 800 pixels? Otherwise the forum page goes a bit too wide.

Did make some pictures too, but due to lack of time I will upload them at a later stage. Now, I've been experimenting with a barlow 2x lens, meaning focal length becomes 3800 mm. First impressions: first thing that came to my notice is that the cross of the secondary mirror (I think its called "spider vain") becomes visible in the pictures, this as a kind of brighter spot in the middle. Don't know if this normal. Second thing, is that only half of light passes through, so quite tough to obtain high shutter speeds. Results are rather blurred pictures, but once in a while a descent shot is possible. Problem remains the heat waves: during the day enough light so relative high shutter speeds are possible, but images stay blur due to atmosphere. Early morning or evening no heat waves but than light deteriorates, so no high shutter speeds possible and also rather blurry pictures due to the shaking' scope. Conclusion: it ain't easy, perhaps have to wait untill Winter for prime use.

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contrailwatcherUK
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Post by contrailwatcherUK »

oooops!
Sorry about that... :oops:
I'm blaming my 1440x900 monitor for that! :lol:
Oh yes, the telescope had a minor collimation problem, but I have now got this 'collimation cap' which shows where to line the mirrors.

Robin_Bamps

Post by Robin_Bamps »

Seen overhead while spotting this evening at the 02 :

Image

PH-MCU, MD-11CF of Martinair "Prinses Maxima" Roses c/s at
lowered altitude heading for AMS. Sorry, I couldn't do better
with my 300mm handheld...

Regards, Robin Bamps.

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lumumba
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Post by lumumba »

hi every body.
Today I saw very nice DC-8 of DHL going west.
I love it.
Ciaooooo
Patrice
Hasta la victoria siempre.

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Bottie
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Post by Bottie »

lumumba wrote:hi every body.
Today I saw very nice DC-8 of DHL going west.
I love it.
Ciaooooo
Patrice

Saw it too, over EBUL

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contrailwatcherUK
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Post by contrailwatcherUK »

Skystef wrote:Now, I've been experimenting with a barlow 2x lens, meaning focal length becomes 3800 mm.
I know this guy in Poland who takes photos through a 2x barlow lens, and his photos are excellent. Here is one of his photos:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h216/ ... 8708v2.jpg

Or you can visit his whole album here:
http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h216/grztus/RNAV_2/

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Skystef
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Post by Skystef »

Robin_Bamps wrote:Seen overhead while spotting this evening at the 02 :

Image

PH-MCU, MD-11CF of Martinair "Prinses Maxima" Roses c/s at
lowered altitude heading for AMS. Sorry, I couldn't do better
with my 300mm handheld...
Thanks for sharing, don't be afraid uploading, the more stuff the more fun.

Found in my archive also a teleshot at 500mm of January 2006, didn't change much.

Image


Lumumba wrote: I saw very nice DC-8 of DHL going west.
I love it.
Found in the files, it was N807DH cruising at 38000 ft as DHL996.


contrailwatcherUK wrote:I know this guy in Poland who takes photos through a 2x barlow lens, and his photos are excellent.
Ok thanks sended him a mail, if he doesn't respond, would you mind to show the picture below in his Polish forum? Hope to get some feedback.
Brighter spot is visible of the spider vain when the aircraft is large enough for a full frame picture.
Image


More contrail shots of past days, finally some shots of three haulers.

April 20

UL608 @ 1617LT Lufthansa MD11F D-ALCP cruising at 38000 ft enroute Frankfurt-Manchester as GEC8616
Image

UL608 @ 1738LT Kuwait Airways B747-400 9K-ADE cruising at 40000 ft enroute Kuwait-JFK via LHR as KAC103
Image

UZ703 @ 1932LT taken with barlow 2x = 3800 m focal length and shutter speed 1/320 sec,
Transavia France B737-800 OY-SEH on a flight of Sterling as SNB9201, cruising southbound at 40000 ft
Image

UZ703 @ 1942LT taken with barlow lens = focal length = 3800 mm and shutter speed 1/320 sec,
Air France A320 F-GLGG cruising at 32000 ft enroute Copenhagen - Paris(CDG) as AFR1051
Image

UL608 @ 1942LT Omni Air Charter DC10 N522AX cruising at 34000 ft westbound
Image



April 21

UL607 @ 0719LT LTU A330-300 D-AERS cruising at 30000 ft enroute Miami-Dusseldorf as LTU901
Image

UL608 @ 0731LT Ryanair B737-800 EI-CSC cruising at 36000 ft enroute Milan (Bergamo) ) - Stansted as RYR41BS
Image

UL607 @ 0757LT THY A340-300 TC-JDM cruising at 37000 ft enroute Chicago-Istanbul as THY5
Image

UL608 @ 0831LT Cyprus Airways A330-200 5B-DBT cruising at 40000 ft enroute Larnaca-Heathrow as CYP332
Image

UZ703 @ 0847LT Norwegian B737-300 LN-KKL cruising at 30000 ft enroute Oslo - Paris (Orly) as NAX1492
Image

UZ703 @ 0849LT Astraeus B737-300 G-STRI at 34000 ft enroute Göteborg-Malaga operating for Sterling as SNB723
Image

UL608 @ 0901LT Adria Airways B737-500 UR-GAS cruising at 36000 ft enroute Ljubljana-Gatwick as ADR450
Image

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contrailwatcherUK
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Post by contrailwatcherUK »

Hi Skystef,
Really nice pictures!!
I can see what you mean about the radiation. The winter skies will be needed for really sharp photos but for now your photos are still very nice.
BTW there is a polish forum for contrailspotters, they have an international section. That guy posts his pictures on there. I have joined up but there arent many users on there who know english.
http://www.rnavspotters.fora.pl/

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Skystef
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Post by Skystef »

contrailwatcherUK wrote:I can see what you mean about the radiation. The winter skies will be needed for really sharp photos but for now your photos are still very nice.
Indeed, unpossible to make any descent shot during the day, so getting up early for some morning shots or towards sunset are the only valable options.

contrailwatcherUK wrote:BTW there is a polish forum for contrailspotters, they have an international section. That guy posts his pictures on there. I have joined up but there arent many users on there who know english.
http://www.rnavspotters.fora.pl/
Yes I know that forum, read it sometimes, but am not registered. Till now no answer from this guy, so would you mind posting a message and ask his opinion about thispicture. Taken with the barlow a brighter spot is visible on all my pictures with full frame. Perhaps he has the same problem with the spider vain but can camouflage it somehow, I didn't see much wrong on his pictures. Contact is possible via q707@luchtzak.be or skystef@mail.be.

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contrailwatcherUK
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Post by contrailwatcherUK »

Hi Stef, he has relplied on the polish forums as he says there is something wrong with the server and your email adress :?
Ive told him about luchtzak.be so hopefully he will join us :)

But he has sent a reply and here it is:
Hello Stef, nice to meet you!
Nice photo of Austrian, the number of details and sharpness are really
great!

There can be few reasons of problem you have wrote about, the spider
vain can be one of it. In my Synta 10" I have a standard four arms
secondary mirror holder.
I was looking for brighter spot on my photos with and without barlow,
and I didn't found it.

In my scope the focuser have 2" diameter and the Soligor Barlow
has also 2" diameter - it's giving him 38mm of active diameter, in 1.25"
barlows it's about 24mm. And the CMOS/CCD sensors have usually about
22x15mm dimension. So if you are using 1.25" barlow one of the reason of brighter scope can be an active diameter of barlow lense: picture near
the edges of focuser are quite darker than in the middle, and
the 1.25" barlow can amplify this effect on the edges of it lense.

The other reason can be the black quality of your scope fuselage (I'm
not an astronome, I don't known technical language from this area ).
It's mean that inside the tube of our scope there is need to have near
ideal black walls, but in my scope walls are dark, but not black (it's
about 70% grey). That's why the contrast are lower and the whole picture
is brighter, so even if I have the same effect (brighter spot in centre)
I cannot find it on my photos.

Best regards,
Grzegorz Tuszyñski

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Skystef
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Post by Skystef »

Ow, didn't know my mailboxes were not working for real messages. On the otherhand daily dozens of spam is received ;).

I've been talking with my local dealer and he too thinks that a 1,25" barlow in combi with a Canon DSLR is causing this vignetting problem due to the sensor size of the cam. He thinks a 2" barlow may be the solution for this problem, so will test that one next week or so.

So for now give him "a big thank you" in answering my question.

Btw, great suggestion to join him overhere, hope to see some shots of his side in this section too.

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Skystef
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Post by Skystef »

Some blue skies on April 30, therefore my scope went outside for a while.


UL608 @ 1613LT Lufthansa A330-300 D-AIKI cruising at 36000 ft enroute Munich-Washington(Dullus) as DLH414.
Image

UZ703 @ 1620LT JAL B777-300 JA736J cruising at 34000 ft enroute Tokyo (NRT) - Paris (CDG) as JAL405.
Image

UZ703 @ 1804LT Finnair A320 OH-LXF cruising at 35000 ft enroute Helsinki-Lisbon as FIN921.
Image

UL608 @ 1838LT Austrian A321 OE-LBC cruising at 32000 ft enroute Vienna-Heathrow as AUA455.
Image

UZ703 @ 2043LT Cargolux B747-400 LX-ICV cruising at 28000 ft enroute Houston-Glasgow-Luxembourg as CLX779.
Image

UZ703 @ 2057LT Futura B737-800 EI-DND cruising at 35000 ft southbound as FUA7264.
Image

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