Passing Airliners OTT of West Lancs

nikonman · 18 Jan 2016

Hi,
Im a keen aircraft enthusiast and take shots of aircraft at cruising altitude using my astronomical telescope and Pentax K-5/Nikon D7000 DSLRs.
Some commercial airliners and military aircraft passing my garden spotting location in recent months

Emirates Airbus A380 A6-EEM by Mike (Radiostationx), on Flickr

Air Tahiti F-OJGF by Mike (Radiostationx), on Flickr

KLM Asia Boeing 747-400 PH-BFP by Mike (Radiostationx), on Flickr

KLM Airlines Boeing 747 PH-BFV by Mike (Radiostationx), on Flickr

Qatar Boeing 777-3DZ A7-BAH by Mike (Radiostationx), on Flickr

Some USAF C-17 Globemaster transports

USAF C-17 95-0107 by Mike (Radiostationx), on Flickr

USAF Boeing C-17 Globemaster III 00-0178. by Mike (Radiostationx), on Flickr

Thanks for looking

plamen_gb · 19 Jan 2016

Nice shots and surprisingly good quality

W44NNE · 23 Jan 2016

Wow, that's some zoom range! What lens combo is that please?

Thanks for sharing

andyred · 23 Jan 2016

Great captures and lovely and sharp at that height - what is the equivalent focal length of a lens with your telescope ?

r1flyguy · 25 Jan 2016

Love theses shots, they are not something you see often, so it's refreshing

EdwardL · 25 Jan 2016

I've enjoyed those - cracking exposures on some considering how far away they are.

superpippo · 26 Jan 2016

These are most unusual and very well taken.
As r1flyguy says, refreshing perspective

jakeblu · 26 Jan 2016

The detail is impressive as is your skill at capturing them

lostinfrance · 26 Jan 2016

Brill

tenyearsafter · 5 Feb 2016

Really interesting and, I suspect rather difficult to execute.

nikonman · 7 Feb 2016

W44NNE said:
Wow, that's some zoom range! What lens combo is that please?

Thanks for sharing

andyred said:
Great captures and lovely and sharp at that height - what is the equivalent focal length of a lens with your telescope ?

Hi @W44NNE, I have 200mm/8inch diameter dobsonian type telescope and 2x Barlow lens.
Its not exactly a portable setup, makes my D7000 (quite a hefty camera) look tiny !
Some gear setup shots.

Hi @andyred, The equivalent in full frame sensor terms would be around 2400mm I think, the scope is 1200mm @ f6 and I use a barlow which gives me 2400mm then my cameras have a cropped sensor D7000 and K5.

Thanks for the comments guys, Yes indeed it is extremely difficult to follow a dot at 15km altitude and get a half decent shot.
I have been using this method for around 18mths or so and it took 6 months before I got anything on the memory card worth posting.
I look back at my early attempts and they are woeful.