Iridium Flare, 24 Dec 2007

[Rob_K]

With a bit of help from Heavens-Above and a bit of planning, I managed to get a shot of the mag -7 flare put out by the satellite Iridium 64 as it passed by my location in Bright, Vic. Really bright in the sky!!! Canon 400D, 21mm, F/8, ISO 800, 30 sec. No image adjustments other than crop & resize.

Date (UTC): 02:13, April 2, 1998 (some sources say 4 April, others 7 :shrug:)
Launch site: 5NIIP Baikonur, Kazakhstan
Launch vehicle: Proton K
Purpose: Communications

Either that or it was Santa's sleigh - I did hear bells ;). Merry Christmas!

Cheers -

[danielsun]

Nice capture there Rob.:thumbsup:

[iceman]

Nice catch Rob, they're great to see when they're bright like that.

[erick]

Yep! Kicking in the afterburners!

Nice capture Rob!

[RB]

Very nice capture Rob !!

:thumbsup:

[Liz]

Brilliant catch Rob, well done.