Uncontrolled Re-Entry under the LMC

[dugnsuz]

Hello all...
Talk about "right place, right time"

On Saturday morning (12:12am) I was out imaging the LMC rising in the south-east. Managed to capture what was described by eyewitnesses as a huge fireball passing overhead...
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=36294

The fireball is believed to be the remains of an intermediate stage of a Russian rocket used to launch satellites into orbit.
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/09/27/russian-space-junk-caught-in-the-act/#more-18716

Canon 40D (modded)
Canon 70-200mm f4L lens, 70mm @ f5.6
Skywatcher Synscan EQ5 mount
Autoguided with PHD

8x300sec, iso1600
Stacked in Images Plus,Tweaked in PS.

I've also included the LMC without the fireball!

High Res versions here...
http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k461/doug-robertson/?action=view&current=Fireball1.jpg
http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k461/doug-robertson/?action=view&current=Fragments.jpg
http://s327.photobucket.com/albums/k461/doug-robertson/?action=view&current=LMC27.jpg

Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[peeb61]

Geezz Doug you have done well there, I have a whinge about a fainty crossing my field of view and stuffing up an image but yours is something to talk about! Well done.

Top Shots.
Paul

[Tilt]

Woohoo! Sensational...

By the way, the image without the intermediate stage re-entry is great too, I see you have knocked it back to f/5.6. Looks sharp, what are your thoughts on the difference between f/4 and f/5.6? I seem to be able to get a slightly sharper image from my 70-200 if I stop it down to f/4.

Michael.

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Guys,
"LUCK be a lady tonight" eh!?
f4 v's f5.6 - not too sure, still experimenting. That said, I always run a star minimization action on all my pics anyway so perhaps f8 is looking good:lol:
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[arkle]

Absolutely amazing Doug!!

By the way, I can't remember whether you said you had the IS or non-IS 70-200mm lens but there is an excellent lens test site www.photozone.de (http://www.photozone.de) that does professional tests of most lenses.

The results for the IS version are here

http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/196-canon-ef-70-200mm-f4-usm-l-is-test-report--review?start=1

and gives the centre resolution, edge resolution and chromatic aberration figuresfor the lens at different focal lengths and apertures. At 200mm it looks like f/5.6 is the way to go.

Cheers,

Steve

[dugnsuz]

Non IS version Steve - wanted it primarily for Astro work so IS wasn't needed.
Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[arkle]

Cool, the results for that lens are here

http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/195-canon-ef-70-200mm-f4-usm-l-test-report--review?start=1

It looks like, at 200mm, it's sharpest in the centre at f/5.6, but slightly sharper around the edges at f/8. I think I'd be going with f/5.6!

:)

[leon]

Gee Doug that is such a lucky shot, it is probably the only one in existence, maybe the Russians will pay big money for it, :shrug: ;) and by the way the image with out the fire ball is a beauty as well, nice going mate. :thumbsup:

Leon :thumbsup:

[dugnsuz]

Cheers leon.
And to think I was cursing when I saw that big white track on the subs!!:lol:

Doug:thumbsup:

[winensky]

Who needs a motion detector? Beautiful widefield. The balance between the dense background and the nebulae seems just right at that aperature.

[Matty P]

Amazing capture Doug, talk about being in the right place in the right time. I really like the first image with the LMC in the background with the fire ball in front of it.

The last image without the white streaks is lovely as well. :)

Very well done. :thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Who's a lucky boy.. I didn't even see a thing. Great luck you had the camera imaging at that time. A real winner.
Congratulations Doug.

[iceman]

Amazing work, Doug! A great image on its own, and with the fireball, even better!

[RB]

As Mike said it's a very fine image just on it's own but with the re-entry it's a unique capture indeed.
A very lucky shot Doug, good timing mate, well done.
The final LMC image is fantastic.

:thumbsup:

[koputai]

Damn! I spent a couple of hours visual on the LMC that night, but didn't start until 2:30am! Fantastic to see so many tiny trail in the shot!

Cheers,
Jason.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks all
Doug

[gregbradley]

Amazing capture Doug.

That's funny as I was just thinking last Friday night that I have yet to see some spectacular thing like that given the number of hours I have spent out in the night with this hobby.

Next time!

Greg.

[jase]

Impeccable timing Doug. Well done. LMC looks a treat too.:thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Verrrry cool!! Now, go buy a lottery ticket!

Cheers, Marcus

[dugnsuz]

Thankyou Gents
Nice to get lucky once in a while!;)

[h0ughy]

fantastic result and effort. Actually it is interesting to note that Alan Meehan caught a bit of this last night as well - he has a shot showing something starting - he has three trailing satellite streaks with a bright flash, and a big streak starting in one frame he took last night. Showed me this morning - we did suspect it could have been the jules verne will definitely have to get him to see this post and put up what he caught. What a spectacular result Doug - APOD for sure!!!

[Ric]

Top stuff Doug, a great capture.

Cheers

[dugnsuz]

Don't tease h0ughy!!!:lol:

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Ric
Doug:thumbsup:

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Doug,

The focus on the rocket trail is a bit soft, also it looks a little red, perhaps reduce the length of exposure next time to minimise the flaring of the space junk across the screen. I have seen better from you, its a bit disappointing to see some mediocre work and post processing such as this. I told you last time regarding your very poor capture of MIR breaking up over the Pacific how lacklustre the picture seemed and it seems this time you just havent "felt" the moment like I know you can. Maybe next time you can increase the field of view and perhaps tweak the curve slightly to really bring out the best in the shot.

:) ;) :thumbsup:

Sorry if anyone thought that was real, I was just being a w&nker. ;), its what i do.

Well done Doug, couldnt have planned it better. Its a pity to ruin such a good background with space junk passing, but you probably wont get another one like that, one in a million!

Top stuff.

Cheers

Chris

[dugnsuz]

:lol::lol::lol:
" How Very Dare You!!!"

[deadsimple]

Nice work dude. The universe today link with your image even managed to hit the front page of digg - which is quite a feat:

http://digg.com/space/Russian_Space_Junk_Caught_In_The_Ac t_PIC

[Screwdriverone]

HA HA HA, I was wondering if your face was bovvered, it probably looked bovvered, were you bovvered?

Sorry, feel a bit silly tonight, couldnt help myself.:screwy:

Cheers

Chris

[dugnsuz]

Cheers Ash,
Is digg.com a big deal - I'm such an out-of-touch old fart!:doh:
Is it popular with the youngsters these days!!!???:P
Doug

EDIT: just checked the "About Us" section on digg...got it now!

[deadsimple]

Well the site used to be more technology-oriented but now has attracted younglings and now contains links/articles to technology, politics, images, etc and other non-tech stuff for a sensationalist impact. While the quality of the site varies from time to time, if you get on the front page you get an insane exposure .. so many people will see it. So yeah pretty good effort.

Will be interesting to see if it hits slashdot (http://slashdot.org/), a much more mature and tech-oriented site. Plenty of actual scientists (and not kids :P) frequent and post there .. it's fairly common to have particle physicists from CERN, scientists and engineers from JPL, etc post regularly in relevant threads.

[Tamtarn]

Hey Doug that image is certainly one for APOD or AS&T. Surely must be the only one in existence with the LMC in the background. Hope you're going to submit it :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[B.Wilson]

Magic photo Congrats

Brendyn

[leon]

Bloody hell, Stop teasing the lad, :lol: just because he is famous, go for it Douggie, push it to the limits mate. :thumbsup:

Leon :thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Fantastic capture of the LMC, and then to have the russian spacejunk falling through it adds another dimension to it...

Definitely is a great shot both with and without the fireball :)

Well done Doug

[alan meehan]

doug i think i caught the same thing sat night while imaging the lagoon

[dugnsuz]

Looks like it Alan - welcome to the Lucky "B" club!!!:lol:

The main trail looks thinner - due to being imaged at the zenith perhaps?

We should put all these together to make a mosaic - we'll be millionares I tells ya!!!:P

Cheers
Doug:thumbsup:

[alan meehan]

thanks Doug,nice to be in the '' Lucky B " club.no effort here just shear luck,i was only out trying my new w/0 focal reducer for the 100 ed ,using my unmodded 400d when this appeared in my 2nd frame. maybe main trail is thinner due to near zenith not sure .like the sound of the mosaic its weird having differnt background objects.
cheers AL

[dugnsuz]

Hi Al
Wouldn't that be something if we could get a mosaic of the trails from zenith to horizon all cutting through well known DSOs!?

Imagers, check your exposures!!

Doug:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

hey guys send your images to the guys at this link http://atv.seti.org/ they were chasing this thing:thumbsup:

[danielsun]

:rofl::rofl::rofl:
Congrats Doug, That is a ripper of a chance shot and is really getting out there.
Well done Allan too! I whish I could have a least just seen it let alone imaged it.

[dugnsuz]

Done Dave...
I've emailed them a link to this thread, perhaps it will be of use.
Thanks for the heads-up
Doug:thumbsup:

[tornado33]

Thats a lovely sharp image of the Lagoon too Alan :)

[janoskiss]

wow amazing captures! well done Doug!!