Contrail spotting September 2007

Skystef · Post by **Skystef** » 22 Sep 2007, 01:05

tangolima wrote:Hello,

Seen this evening between 18.45-19.00 above Ghent:

- Cathay Pacific Cargo B747-200F Heading USA or UK

My scope was pointed at this one too. Btw it wasn't a 200, but a 400, with the bare eye perhaps a bit difficult.
Anti collision light by coincidence also pictured

.

Full info at my location near BUB.

September 21

UL608 1849LT Cathay Pacific B747-400F B-HUP cruising at 36000 ft enroute Hong Kong-Manchester as CPA037.

Post by **tangolima** » 22 Sep 2007, 20:01

Hello,

Seen this day above Ghent:

- XL Airways B737-800 with winglets
- British Airways B737
- Continental N27015 "8 min. earlier dep. at BRU as CO 061 to EWR."
- World Cargo DC 10F
- Easy Jet A319
- American Airlines N381AN "took-off at BRU as AA 0171 to JFK."
- Delta Airlines N175DZ "took-off at BRU as DL 125 to ATL."
- Ryanair B737-800
- Saudi Arabian Airlines B777
- SWISS Avro TO LHR.
- Lufthansa A320, A340 D-AIFE to USA
- Austrian Airlines OE-LVN Fokker 100
- Air France A319 "with heading AMS."

Greetings,
Kristof

Skystef · Post by **Skystef** » 23 Sep 2007, 01:31

Two additions of September 22.

UL608 @ 1552LT. Royal Jordanian A340-200 JY-AIC cruising at 36000 ft enroute Amman-Chicago as RJA263

UL608 @ 1618LT. Air India B767-300 G-CDPT cruising at 38000 ft enroute Ahmedabad-Heathrow as AIC133

contrailwatcherUK · Post by **contrailwatcherUK** » 23 Sep 2007, 21:50

very nice, I like the RJA because you can even see the web adress printed on the fuselage!

Skystef · Post by **Skystef** » 24 Sep 2007, 02:14

contrailwatcherUK wrote:very nice, I like the RJA because you can even see the web adress printed on the fuselage!

Ok thx J, it's indeed amazing what a barlow lens can do. Btw seems you have a little break in your contrail activity? Now atmospheric conditions are becoming interesting.

On September 23, around noon, an An12 crossed Belgian airpace. Lucky enough my scope was outside when I heared the sound of a prop. Nevertheless the pic is rather louzy as I had to be fast, and with a scope on full magnification it ain't exactly easy to seek and follow a plane without a contrail. But the real skygazer still seem to fall of his/her chair seeing the rather fine results of these fast moving objects.

The Atma An12 UN-11018 was cruising at 24000 ft as AMA3732, and it was presumable on a course for the U.K.

ilpavone2004 · Post by **ilpavone2004** » 24 Sep 2007, 12:03

I have a question for skystef...i just wanted to know how you can focus on the airplane and have such a great focus on your images. I have many problems focusing with my scope...do you use a focuser? or something like that? Actually i don't take photos with a barlow lens but with an ocular (baader planetarium hyperion zoom 8-24)...and everytime i see your photos i'm really stunned.
Thank you for answering

regards

Mattia

Skystef · Post by **Skystef** » 24 Sep 2007, 15:42

ilpavone2004 wrote:how you can focus on the airplane and have such a great focus on your images. I have many problems focusing with my scope...do you use a focuser? or something like that?

I don't use a focuser. When looking trough my viewfinder of my cam, I just do the manual work with the scope's ring and this on each plane. Although image is quite dark, I can distinguish when an object is aprox sharp and start to make some pictures. I found out when temperature of my scope is changing (f.e. heating due to direct sunlight) the mirror starts to vibrate slightly and this makes it unpossible to get sharp images. Another aspect giving blurry pics are of course the heat waves in the atmosphere, I suppose in Italy this effect is even more pronounced.

Here two other nice pics, sadly without contrail, this time of September 18.

I was very satisfied seeing a 747-400 of JAL, usually it's the B777.

UZ703 @ 1845LT. Japan Airlines B747-400 JA8082 cruising at 33000 ft enroute Tokyo-Paris as JAL415.

UL608 @ 1841LT Virgin Atlantic A340-300 G-VELD cruising at 38000 ft enroute Mumbai-LHR as VIR351.

At this very moment (September 24 @ 1530 LT) I hear the sound of An12 4K-AZ56 of Silk Way on cruising level, sadly thick clouds are obscuring things.

ilpavone2004 · Post by **ilpavone2004** » 24 Sep 2007, 22:50

hi skystef,
i just wanted to know what kind of slr digital camera you have

thank you for answering.

regards

mattia

contrailwatcherUK · Post by **contrailwatcherUK** » 25 Sep 2007, 18:19

Hi,

Has been a while since i had the chnce to do any spotting due to weather conditions, but mostly because of aircraft flying different routes than usual leaving me with not much traffic at all. Anyway, here are some I took at the weekend:

World Airways

Regular Kalitta air 742 to Leige

an interesting NWA with contrail shadow

COA42

World Airways

Cheers,
James

Skystef · Post by **Skystef** » 25 Sep 2007, 21:57

Ok thx for sharing these pics, J.
First World seems to wear ex Delta colors, so it's N801DE. The second wears the retro c/s, you lucky guy

.
Overhere, contrailing three haulers remain a rare sight. However saw a week ago a Tu154 of Pulkovo. Checking last month logs of overflyers, it's the only company that somettimes uses this equipment. Sadly most of the time their ordinary B737s are cruising through Belgium.

ilpavone2004 wrote:i just wanted to know what kind of slr digital camera you have thank you for answering.

Canon DSLR equipment, series 300D / 30D.

Post by **tangolima** » 30 Sep 2007, 19:48

Hello,

Seen above Ghent between 10.30-13.00:

- Turkish Airlines A310,B737 TC-JGF
- Continental B777 N78004 took-off at BRU as CO 061 to Newark.
- Ryanair B737-800
- Northwest A330 coming from AMS.
- British Airways B737
- Lufthansa A300,B747 heading USA
- Easy Jet A319
- American Airlines B767 N354AA took-off at BRU as AA 089 to Chicago ORD.
- World Cargo DC10 heading USA
- Delta Airlines B767 N1608 took-off at BRU as DL 141 to JFK.
- Emirates B777 to LHR

Greetings,
Kristof

ilpavone2004 · Post by **ilpavone2004** » 01 Oct 2007, 11:53

Hi guys!

Here i'll post some photos i did. some photos maybe will look similar but they're taken in different days! Hope you enjoy them

Boeing 737, Transavia

Boeing 747, Saudi Arabian Airlines

Boeing 757, Thomson Fly

Boeing 757, Air Italy

Airbus A330, Skyservice approaching PSR as flight from Toronto Pearson Intl

Boeing 737, Aegean Air

Boeing 767, Blue Panorama

CRJ-900, Myair

Boeing 737, XL Airways

Boeing 737, Thomas Cook Airlines

Airbus A320, Eurofly

Boeing 737, Yat Airways

Boeing 737, Aegean Air

France Airforce (suppose)

Airbus A340, Air China enroute Rome-Shangai (always passing near my house

)

Airbus A319, Easyjet

Airbus A320, Alitalia

Airbus A320, Eurofly

Airbus A320, Eurofly (I-EEZE-->read

)

MD-11, Martinair Cargo (really far away)

Boeing 737, Lauda Air

Airbus A320, WizzAir

Airbus A320, Myair (EI-DOD--->read)

Airbus A320, My Travel

Airbus A320, Myair

Boeing 737, Lauda Air

Antonov An-124 Ruslan (Really rare sight here)

Boeing 737, XL Airways

MD-80, Viking

Airbus A321, Livingston Energy Flight (EI-LVB--->read----> SEE YOU LATER

)

Boeing 737, Bulgaria Air

Boeing 747-400, KLM (PH-BFN-->suppose enroute to Nairobi)

Unknown 5

Boeing 737, Malev

Boeing 767, Blue Panorama

Boeing 737, Air Belin (really far away)

Boeing 737, Tarom

Airbus A321, Livingston Energy Flight

Boeing 737, Blue Panorama

Boeing 737, Hemus Air

Boeing 777, Delta Airlines

Boeing 737, Transaero

Boeing 737, Neos

Boeing 737, Tarom

Boeing 737, Aegean Air

Boeing 737, Thomson Fly

Boeing 737, Mistral Air

Airbus A321, Livingston Energy Flight (EI-LVB---->read)

Boeing 757, Thomson Fly

That's all folks

Enjoy them!

Best regards,

Mattia

P.S:
A question for skystef and for contrailwatcheruk... what kind of telescope do you use? Newton? Maksutov-Cassegrain?

stevie · Post by **stevie** » 01 Oct 2007, 12:59

hi

Unknown1: transavia 737
unknown 2&3: Lauda air
unknown4: Bulgaria??
unknown5 : Thomsonfly?? or one of the TUI group
unknown6&7&8:???
unknown 9: Neos?

brieky · Post by **brieky** » 01 Oct 2007, 13:41

hello
unknown 6: 737?
unknown 8: Transaero 762
unknown 7: DL 772

btw; nice pics

greetz Brieky

brieky · Post by **brieky** » 01 Oct 2007, 13:43

sorry unknown 7 can also be an 763ER???

greetz

brieky · Post by **brieky** » 01 Oct 2007, 13:45

and btw MYair md80 must be a crj900!

contrailwatcherUK · Post by **contrailwatcherUK** » 01 Oct 2007, 14:41

Hi,

Skystef and I are both using Dobsonian telescopes both @ 1200mm.
Mine is this one > http://www.celestron.com/c2/product.php?ProdID=20
which cost me around £240 (343 Euro)

haha, I like that livingston plane... "see you later"

I see a lot of airlines are now painting the underside of the fuselage to advertise to contrailspotters

AN124 · Post by **AN124** » 01 Oct 2007, 18:27

Unknown 6 is a Hemus Air 737.

Greetings,
Yvo

ilpavone2004 · Post by **ilpavone2004** » 01 Oct 2007, 21:25

for contrailwatcherUK:

isn't that difficult to follow airplanes with a dobson mount? i think i'll buy a new telescope...because my maksutov is not that good with planes so i'll use it only with the moon and planets. thank you really much for answering.

best regards,

mattia

Skystef · Post by **Skystef** » 05 Oct 2007, 21:58

ilpavone2004 wrote:isn't that difficult to follow airplanes with a dobson mount? i think i'll buy a new telescope...because my maksutov is not that good with planes so i'll use it only with the moon and planets. thank you really much for answering.

I have no trouble in using it for moving objects. It's just a matter of building up some experience. Within a day I could take my first descent picture. With a barlow, it's even more difficult to nail a plane, but practice is the best learning school.