Twin Iridium Flares

[Benny L]

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa314/thephotoguy131/Astro/Startrail.jpg

I was looking through heavens-above.com and I found that two -8mag iridium flares were happening in rather close proximity to each other, and only 2-3 minutes apart too. So naturally the camera came out :D

Thanks for looking! :)

[DavidU]

Thats a rare capture Ben. Excellent

[Liz]

Well done Benny, it would be wonderful to capture 1, but 2 !! :thumbsup:

[Benny L]

thanks guys! was lucky for the weather to break while the satellites were overhead, the clouds had reclaimed the sky about 10 minutes after that was taken :(

[leon]

Great effort Benny, very nice capture inded.

Leon

[byronpaul]

Great shot .... luv the effect of the flares vs the stars :thumbsup:

[Benny L]

thanks fellas! :D

[lesbehrens]

thats cool. can u tell me a little more about these flares?

[Matt Wastell]

Fantastic presentation!

[iceman]

That's very cool! Awesome shot.

[Benny L]

Hi Les,

I just lifted the following from wikipedia :)

The Iridium communication satellites have a peculiar shape with three polished door-sized antennas, 120 degrees apart and at 40 degree angles with the main bus. The forward antenna faces the direction in which the satellite is travelling. Occasionally an antenna will reflect sunlight directly down to the Earth, creating a predictable and quickly moving illuminated spot of about 10 km diameter. To an observer this looks like an extremely bright flare in the sky with a duration of a few seconds.

Ranging up to -8 magnitude (rarely to a brilliant -9.5), some of the flares are so bright that they can be seen at daytime; but they are most impressive at night. This flashing has been some annoyance to astronomers, as the flares occasionally disturb observations and can damage sensitive equipment.

When not flaring, the satellites are often visible crossing the night sky at a typical magnitude of 6, similar to a dim star.

[Inmykombi]

You have done well to capture that image.

Thx for sharing it.

[Kevnool]

Rare moment to capture two.
Great work.
Cheers Kev.

[lesbehrens]

oh thats cool. thanks for the info.:thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Great capture Ben! Very cool.

Cheers,
Stephen

[javier alves]

great shoot benny ,and double flares, :thumbsup:

[spearo]

very cool
frank