Fourmilab Photo Album Friday, March 16, 2012

Iridium flare, magnitude −8.

This image shows a flare of sunlight reflected from the main mission antenna of Iridium 62. The peak of the flare was at 19:33:20 UTC on 2012-03-16 at magnitude −8 as observed from Fourmilab (the flare centre was just 5 km east of where I took this picture). Mars, a passing airplane (its blinking red navigation light is visible) and the hairy constellation of Coma Berenices are visible in the picture. The photo is a 90 second exposure at ISO 160 with a Leica M9 with a SUMMICRON-M 1:2/35 ASPH 35mm lens at f/2. I made the exposure manually with a shutter setting of “B” with a cable release. Here is a map of the sky at the time of the flare courtesy of Your Sky.

This document and all images included within it are in the public domain. They may be used in any manner without permission, restriction, attribution, or compensation.

by John Walker

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