Twin Iridium flares near the Southern Cross

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi all,

Yesterday evening there were two back-to-back Iridium flares near the Southern Cross. The first (Iridium 96) was relatively faint (approx mag -1?), and this was followed 72 seconds later by Iridium 58 which must have been about mag -6!!! Certainly the brightest flare I've seen. Anyway, I did a couple of exposures capturing each flare, and then combined then using Deep Sky Stacker. Here's the result. There's a full frame version as well as a 100% crop of the region with the flares. Unfortunately there was a bit of high cirrus cloud which makes for a bit of background skyglow, but I'm still happy with the result.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Stephen

[erick (Eric)]

Two for the price of one! Nice capture Stephen!

[Liz]

Great one Stephen

[Analog6 (Odille)]

Nice shots, I like the full frame one. Well spotted and captured.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Nice catch Stephen,

Any astro shot that has a Palm tree in it gets a thumbs up from me.

Cheers
Trevor

[Rob_K]

Great job Stephen!! Like the full frame as well...

Cheers -

[Steffen]

Great catch! Are those parallel streaks fainter reflexes from the other panel?

Also, what resource are people using these days for predicting Iridium flares? The site I had bookmarked (at DLR) appears defunct…

Cheers
Steffen.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Thanks very much for the comments Eric, Liz, Odile, Trevor, Rob and Steffen!

Here's another image showing just the brighter of the 2 flares.

Originally Posted by Steffen

...what resource are people using these days for predicting Iridium flares?

Try www.heavens-above.com Steffen. it's good for the ISS and other satellites as well.

Cheers,
Stephen

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Great shots Stephen.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by lacad01

Great shots Stephen.

Thanks Adam!

Cheers,
Stephen

[cookie8 (Vincent)]

Such a beauty with the Southern Cross as the backdrop. Great work Stephen!!

[Adelain]

Hi Stephen.
I took the same photo at the same time from Mapleton observatory (sunshine coast).
They were about a minute apart, mag 4 and mag 8 in that order, I covered the lense with my habd for about 30 seconds.
Canon 400 D.
Cheers Adrian

[Steffen]

Originally Posted by Steffen

Are those parallel streaks fainter reflexes from the other panel?

What a stupid suggestion (looking at the pics again). This would make for some rather gigantic satellite…

Cheers
Steffen.

[Adelain]

Hi Stephen.
I took the same photo at the same time from Mapleton observatory (sunshine coast).
They were about a minute apart, mag 4 and mag 8 in that order, I covered the lense with my habd for about 30 seconds.
Canon 400 D.
Cheers Adrian

Sorry thats -4 & -8( but you all new that), though Ihave my doubts about the -4 Heavens above predicted.

Cheers Adrian

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Originally Posted by cookie8

Such a beauty with the Southern Cross as the backdrop. Great work Stephen!!

Thanks Vincent! When I realized that these flares were going to be next to the Southern Cross I thought it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Originally Posted by Adelain

Hi Stephen.
I took the same photo at the same time from Mapleton observatory (sunshine coast).
They were about a minute apart, mag 4 and mag 8 in that order, I covered the lense with my habd for about 30 seconds.
Canon 400 D.
Cheers Adrian

Sorry thats -4 & -8( but you all new that), though Ihave my doubts about the -4 Heavens above predicted.

Cheers Adrian

Nice work Adrian! I didn't realize that these flares were visible over such a wide area. Were yours the same satellites (Iridium 96 and 58)at the same time (7:06 and 7:07 pm)? Glad I wasn't the only one out there recording it!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Adelain]

Yes Stephen they were the same iridiums but one was suposed to be -4 mag, but was barely -1 as you saw.
Surprised you could see them 100ks away from here.
Ive tried to get two together before but always seem mess up the focus or exposure etc.

Cheers Adrian

[Dean]

I think I saw these as a fluke looking up into the sky!