Iridium Flare through Leo
Copyright 2005 Hap Griffin
This photo is of sunlight reflecting from the shiny aluminum antenna panels of
an Iridium communications satellite passing by overhead. In this case, the
satellite was Iridium 11 and was passing through the constellation of Leo.
The bright stars making the familiar pattern can be seen, with Regulus being
just to the lower right of the area of maximum brightness. Iridium flares
as they are called since the satellite appears to "flare up" are a
very common occurrence from any location - the predicted times and locations for
any city can be found at www.heavens-above.com.
The dark area at the bottom is the out of focus image of the front of the LX-200
telescope on which the camera was mounted. The striped pattern within the
flare is a result of the interaction of the rows of pixels in the camera imager
and the JPEG data compression used.
Date/Location:
April 9, 2005 Griffin/Hunter
Observatory Bethune, SC
Instrument: Canon 10D Digital SLR through Sigma 28-80mm zoom
lens at approximately 35 mm
Focal Ratio: f4.5
Guiding: None - camera piggyback on LX-200 telescope
Conditions: Visually clear
Weather: 55 deg. F
Exposure: Approximately 30 seconds - captured in 6 megapixel FINE jpeg mode
Filters: None
Processing: Levels adjusted with Photoshop 6. Noise reduction with
NeatImage.