Spent 2 hours trying to find a satellite that wasn't there

Last night I was setting up for a shot of the ISS passing over Denver. My tracking app said it should be visible, but I saw nothing. Turns out I had my location set to a city 200 miles away from a trip six months ago. I fixed it in 30 seconds after realizing. Has anyone else had a simple setting mess up a whole night of shooting?

4 comments

4 Comments

miles_hall3mo ago

Yeah, the location thing gets everyone eventually. I double check my GPS coordinates in my main app against a second one before I even pack my gear now. Saves you from wasting a whole night on a dumb setting.

sage_green3mo ago

Actually, GPS coordinates can be wrong if the app's map data is off. Better to cross-check with a known landmark on a paper map too.

finley_gonzalez493mo ago

Wait, you still carry a paper map? That's wild. My last one probably disintegrated in a flooded basement back in 2005. The idea of spreading out one of those giant, crinkly things on my hood just to find a trailhead seems like a story from another century. Guess I've put too much faith in the little blue dot.

jana_jones28d ago

Three times I have had my GPS tell me a trailhead was a quarter mile down a closed logging road that hadn't been used in a decade. Paper maps don't lose signal and they don't run out of battery, which is more than I can say for my phone on a cold overnight trip. Maybe @finley_gonzalez49 is onto something with that old-school approach, cause the little blue dot has led me up the wrong mountain more than once.