Iridium 61

[Mick]

I finally have a photo of an Iridium flare from beginning to end; we've had bad weather for weeks. Iridium 61 (-1 mag) 35sec f/2.6 iso200.

[rumples riot]

Nice shot Mick

[seeker372011]

wow. that must have taken a good deal of planning and stalking!

[gbeal]

Hi Mick,
well done, although it is difficult to see, on my monitor anyway.
I used to shoot these with "real film", and having seen yours I am keen to try again.
Regards,
Gary

[iceman]

Awesome, you got Orion in there too.

not much evidence of star trails for a 35sec exposure! Excellent work!

[Mick]

Thanks here’s a link to a 198K image if are interested and you want to have a look at the full size image. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/beno65au/Iridium61A1.jpg
There are star trails in the bigger image; wide field smaller images hide a lot of stuff. A bit of planing is required but the weather is the big factor (rogue clouds). I just print out the Iridium Flare predictions for my location from Heavens-Above (http://www.heavens-above.com/) set the polar axis of a gem mount up at the predicted Altitude and then pick the mount up and rotate it to point to the predicted Azimuth using a compass. Open the shutter 10 to 15 sec before the Flares predicted time.

[iceman]

Great job, it will be awesome to see one at mag -8 :)