Mag -8 Iridium Flare

[Buddman]

I've been noticing a few snaps of Iridium flares so I looked up Heavens Above and found that there was a magnitude -8 passing almost directly overhead that (last) night and managed to get a shot. Only just managed it, got focus about 30 seconds before I started to see the satelite on it's way in.

Because I was only using a Canon 1000D on a tripod the shot is only 15 seconds long to avoid star trails - not sure if that was a good idea.

Also included a series of 15 second shots that was combined in DeepSkyStacker. There was one more shot but "someone" turned on the patio light, my wife just doesn't get it. My 11 yr old son and I thought it was pretty spectacular.

[StephenM]

Well captured Adam! They are spectacular to see aren't they!

I'm guessing that was Iridium 37 at about 6:47pm last night? I captured the same one from Brisbane, see here:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=589066#post589066

Cheers,
Stephen

[batema]

Very nice Mr Budd

[Buddman]

Thanks Stephen, yeah - same one. It was centred 2 km west of where I was. I feel like I have a new mediocre superpower of being able to predict events in the sky to the second and they occur much more frequently than solar or lunar eclipses - handy.

Adam