International Space Station Caught on Wyze V3

Captured on Wyze
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EDIT: (OR MAYBE NOT: See @bam post on the end of this thread!)

Ok, thanks to the advanced tutelage of Professors @bam, @ThreeTen, @freelancertech and @DraconisRex, I’m pretty sure I captured the International Space Center passing far off to the west on Nov. 16th on my new Wyze V3. @WyzeDongsheng @UserCustomerGwen

A little history, I caught a ton of meteors, satellites, planes, space junk and other stuff during the recent build up to the Leonid Meteor Shower event. I had the Wyze V3 set to “continuous recording” so I had days worth of hours worth of minutes recorded to an SD card.

One of my wise Wyze advisors, @DraconisRex (I think), speculated that we could perhaps capture the ISS passing by.

Looking online, I found an Historical Record of the International Space Station’s tracking, scrollable down to the second. And found a GMT timeframe during which the ISS should have been viewable from my location (GMT-600).

http://www.isstracker.com/historical

I entered the following time: 2020-11-16 05:21:00-0600. I saw that the ISS passed off the west of my location, moving from Northwest to SouthEast … and searched through the applicable timeframe stored on my SD card. And bingo, I found an object on the V3’s “continuous recording” on Nov. 16th, at 5:21 am, continuing into 5:22 am, moving in the right direction at the right time.

The object first appears on the right of the video, top quadrant, close to the edge of view. You’ll see it move.

Check out the following two clips. (Second video still not playing on some devices, but does on IOS! (Note to moderators. Both MP4s play on my Windows laptop, but not online here! Help!) (Dongsheng was able to download the videos and play them locally, so if you can’t view them, please download the two videos while it is figurex it out!d

Given the object is in the correct position, moving in the correct direction, at the correct time the ISS should be viewable from my location, according to the ISS historical record, I believe I captured the International Space Station … with Wyze V3.

(Hopefully one of my Wyze professors will verify my catch, but I think the facts speak for themselves.

The V3 is one heck of a mind-blowing product! I need about a dozen more!

If you are interested in catching similar objects in the night sky with your V3s … here’s a website that will give you the best viewing opportunities at your specific location in the coming days. Set up a free account and “set your location” in lat/long/altitude

ISS Tracker 3D - International Space Station - REAL TIME TRACKING (satflare.com)

Before receiving my V3, I was only addicted to Wyze. Now I’m addicted to Wyze products and watching the night skies on my V31

And I’m loving every minute of it.

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I cant get the video to play :cry:

the video shows the video counter moving like its playing but the video time( bottom right) never moves…

cant get it to work in different browsers either :frowning:

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Took several viewings but I see it now on the first video, but not the second. Interesting stuff regardless. Thanks!

Edit: looks as if you are redoing them. Both were playing for me, for what that’s worth.

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I know. I had to convert the files from MKV to MP4s to fit. Dang. I’m working on it. Can you try to download the file and see if you play it locally

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give me about an hour… :slight_smile:
ill be home then

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Finally got the first ISS video working (I think) and replaced the first file upload in the original post. But still can’t seem to make the second one to work on all devices. Please download the videos if you can’t play them on your device via the website.

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No problem playing video and thanks for the great info! :+1:

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Thanks @hemi. I still can’t make them playing remotely on my Windows 10.

But you are able to view both files, right?

I’m trying various conversion programs I have … trouble is the dang size limit on Wyze.com uploads. I have to shrink them down.

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for those who can’t play the video, I downloaded it and it played.

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Thanks Dongsheng! I apologize but I’m at a loss as to why MP4 videos aren’t playing remotely.

FYI – You were the inspiration for my star-gazing addiction from your first time lapse V3 star video!

Thanks to you and the other Wyze folks for developing this wonderful and amazing V3!

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Yes sir, both play fine on iOS.

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Android as well.

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Here’ are upcoming ISS viewing times for my location using this app:

ISS Tracker 3D - International Space Station - REAL TIME TRACKING (satflare.com)

Screenshot 2020-11-22 143310
Screenshot 2020-11-22 143310774×513 22.5 KB

Can’t wait to see what other Wyze V3 owners capture in the night skies! Gotta love it!

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whoo hoo, I got it working!

sadly i have to burst the bubble. i think this is a satellite too. mainly because of brightness. this isnt nearly as bright as the ISS would be.

for instance… youtube videos :slight_smile:
notice how bright this is…on a phone camera ( that wont gather as might light as the V3) and this is before you can even see stars, the sky is still blue. you can even see the space x crew dragon capsule catching up to the ISS. ( go full screen to see the capsule)

if it goes in front of the V3 it will be by far the brightest thing in that frame ( assuming no planes or the moon isn’t in the frame )

so in doing the astronomer thing and looking ahead I think ( weather permitting) I will have a good capture of the ISS on December 6th :slight_smile: considering my birthday is the 5th, ill call that serendipitous.

Capture+_2020-11-22-16-27-51
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@bam (or other moderators) Ah heck. Maybe delete the thread entirely then.

I thought it was not as bright because the ISS was far off to the west, according the historical ISS tracking site. I just caught it off to the west, where the sun wouldn’t be as bright, so as a result, the ISS wouldn’t be as bright. It also wouldn’t “seem” as fast since it was way off to the west instead of passing directly overhead.

Boy, the historical tracking, the timing, the direction … it all lined up. Sorry I screwed up.

Screenshot 2020-11-22 154410
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Oh well, please delete the thread.

Can I ask you a another stupid question? On second thought, several questions.

Why does the chart I posted a couple of posts ago from the ISS Tracker 3D website list so many “naked eye” possibilities to view the ISS in the next few days at my location?

It also lists “non viewable” times the ISS will be close to my location? Meaning it will pass in the dark. Are all passes, day and night, the same brightness?

Why are you saying Dec. 6th is your next best view?

I should have paid better attention in your Astronomy class.

I’ll crawl back under my rock, embarassed. Please delete the thread.

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Right or wrong I don’t care, you’ve provided some excellent information and opened up exploration possibilities with a cheap little cam. Heck, I’ve heard that some people dispute the existence of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I’m older than dirt and still believe in both. Thanks!

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Ditto. I enjoyed / learned from it.

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no worries at all. its GREAT practice! :slight_smile: no need to delete the thread, there is some really good information in it. most people wouldn’t know about iss tracking websites and such.

one of the reasons they list so many is yes, technically it is visible…but the brightness ( referred to as magnitude or MAG.) is quite low, so its something that you have to have a very clear sky and would have to know what you are looking for to actually spot it. and the ones that say visible= no, those are the ones where it is overhead, but it is opposite the sun and thus in the earths shadow and not reflecting enough light to be visible to the naked eye or it’s daytime and because of the raleigh light scattering effect ( making our sky blue) the sky is brighter than the iss and makes the iss not visible. during the night, even when it’s in the earth’s shadow with a pair of binoculars you might still be able to see it but it is moving very fast and is quite hard to track so you have to know what you are doing even for something so “simple”. it can be quite frustrating at times.

speaking of speed, you’ll find when you do finally see it that even when its at the extremes of the horizons, it maintains a constant speed. I would compare it to a plane in the sky…and they scoot along quite well :wink:

in looking at my tracking app I use just for the ISS that is the next time it will pass directly overhead at a time that it will triangulate well for my position ( Michigan) and reflect lots of light…weather dependent of course. I got an alert from that app about an hour ago that it was going over, but its cloudy here :frowning:

please don’t be embarrassed, I am a horribly addicted space nerd ( far far more than most) and love helping others discover this type of thing, being able to share information and also over our shared love of the tech used here to catch it is awesome. nothing at all to be embarrassed about. I have no doubt you know quite a lot about certain subject matters that I don’t, that’s just the way of life, had that been a topic to come up here, we would have switched positions :grinning: and that would be great too.

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Wow awesome thread, I’ve gotta try to spot it when I get my v3 as well. I am always searching YouTube for videos like this and any type of other awesome things to learn. Like how fast we are actually moving through space blows my mind. So awesome.

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Hello, @todwatts…

It’s your thread, but I wouldn’t delete it.

No need to be embarrassed or disheartened as far as I’m concerned because the thread serves as a learning curve (just my 2 cents). Now, thanks to Professor @Bam (I’m not being sarcastic either)… you and the rest of us know what to look for in the night sky with our cool toy - the V3 Celestial Cam (well, once I receive mine anyway).

You just keep posting stuff… perhaps you’ll be lucky enough to capture something like a :flying_saucer: :shushing_face:. That would certainly spark a looooong thread of speculation and fun.

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