Looks like i got a meteorite shot last night

[Ewan]

Afternoon everyone, set up the scope last night then rain stopped play so i decided not to waste the entire evening & give up, waited till 2.00am & decided to do some sky photography instead.

I used my 18mm-55mm Canon kit lense at f5 / 20 sec exp @ iso 400 single shot, i appreciate i have clouds & the right hand part is pink(ish) but i knid of like this look, i'm happy with the composition, meteor (i hope) nearly at 1rd rule, nice bit of central sky flanked by whispy clouds (due to movement).

I used CS6 to overlap both pics together to show the bright streak coming into view then dying out, the gap in the middle is a slight pause between shots to prevent camera shake appearing on my shot.

Overlayed shot :-

It's nothing special but i'm not going without sleep for nothing :-)

[JamesF]

You sure it's a meteor and not a satellite?

James

[Ewan]

Pretty sure James yes, i'd have thought a satellite would not have trailed off like that & it wasnt on previous frames or next frames as i was shooting in a 10 stack :-)

[JamesF]

Fair enough. You were there and saw it

The reason I asked was that in the gap between the two halves of the trail I'd imagine there must be at least half a second, perhaps? Maybe more? In that time it appears to have travelled about a degree of arc, which seems quite slow. I'd have expected closer to ten degrees of arc per second as a minimum.

But I wasn't there

James

[Ewan]

I meant no offense James :-)

Hmmm but i could be wrong, i will check through my pics thouroughly but loading into CS6 i could see nothing just came from no where.

either way i have it as my desktop background now.

[JamesF]

Absolutely none taken, honestly I'm quite content to be wrong. It's not like I'm not used to it

James

[Stu]

Could possibly an iridium flare? You could easily double check the time, location and brightness on heavens-above.com. They do tend to come from nowhere, reach a peak brightness, then fade away, much like your shot.

Nice picture regardless of what it was.

Cheers

Stu

[Ewan]

Hi Stu, iridium flare not of that but i think Iridium is mainly found in space ? ie on the moon ? ill take a read on it.

Regardless i really liked the composition of the photo wouldnt have mattered if i caught the mother in law flying by i'd still like the shot ,hmmm i hope she's not on SGL gulp !!!

[Stu]

, let's hope she's not!

Iridium flares are satellites in low earth orbit and on a fairly regular basis, their antennae catch the sun at the right angle to dramatically brighten. This is very location dependent and is predicted very accurately on the Heavens Above website. They can get as bright as mag -8, and fade up to this, and back down again over maybe 10 seconds so it potentially matches what you captured although it was obviously not a particularly bright one.

Stu

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm almost certain that that image is an Iridium flare. If you notice,both streaks are fading in and out in the opposite direction. The pause in the middle would be where the flare was at its brightest.

[Ewan]

I have put this down to a satelite too now,

I'm almost certain that that image is an Iridium flare. If you notice,both streaks are fading in and out in the opposite direction. The pause in the middle would be where the flare was at its brightest.

- the pause in the middle is actually where 2 exposures were joined using MOVE in CS6 & that 'gap' is the missing data.

But i have caught 4 definates from last night so i am now in the Meteor club