Local startup captures image of ISS flying past Saturn

SINGAPORE - The International Space Station (ISS) flew past Saturn on Thursday morning at around 6.24am, and Singaporeans who were awake and watching would have been able to catch a glimpse of it.

For those who did not manage to catch the rare moment, this capture by local startup TinyMOS will fill you in on what you missed.

The fly-by was captured on the company's Tiny1 camera at East Coast Park this morning.

While the camera, which according to them is the world's smallest astronomy camera, is not on the market yet, the founders will be launching it on crowdfunding page Indiegogo soon.

TinyMOS said that they had previously tried to capture an image of ISS transits, but cloud cover thwarted their attempts.

They said: "When we assembled the equipment required to capture the transit, the clouds were obstructing the view of Saturn and we only got rare glimpses at it."

Fortunately, they didn't wait in vain this morning: "Thankfully the skies cleared a hole big enough for us to capture the image."

That small dot you see in the picture is the planet Saturn, and the ISS is the bright light whizzing by.

via GIPHY

According to Mr Gary Chee, co-founder of local astronomy group Singapore Sidewalk Astronomy, fly-bys of satellites are not rare, but are still unique sights to catch from planet Earth.

Just last week, US astronaut Tim Kopra from the International Space Station (ISS) shared a photo of Singapore from space.

SS Rick Husband getting into position for capture. Now attached to #ISS - hatch opening tomorrow! @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/7dKbPcYBZE

— Tim Kopra (@astro_tim) March 26, 2016

debwong@sph.com.sg

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