Iridium 32 Flare near Orion

[qcdougn]

I thought I had guessed right on the location of the flare. But, I missed it by a little...should have taken at 70mm instead of 90mm...

I still like Orion's belt and M42 on the side.

This is a 15 sec. exposure @f6.3 taken with a Canon XT and Sigma 70-300mm DG APO - @90mm.

Doug

[redglare]

damn close though, M42 looks nice in there though, I am still tring to catch a flare, let alone with such a classic backdrop, brilliant

cheers

Ray

[Wedge]

That's amazing.

I would have never thought that you could capture M42 in such detail with such a short exposure! I have to try that!

:shock:

[Sam]

Great shot - there's quite a bit of M42 in that! and for only 15secs!

[qcdougn]

Thanks for the nice comments guys. I get email notices from CalSky when a Flare is visible in my location. If the weather and work cooperate, I try to capture some of the brighter ones. When I saw the location for this one on a chart, I thought Orion would be in the fov too.

If you plan to image one of the IF's, be ready with camera all-set. Most of them only last for 10-30 seconds. So, some practice exposures for focus and sky glow for f-stop and duration are advised. These flares are always on time...sometimes they'll surprise you.

Since they are phantom-like satellites, you may get hooked looking for them frequently. Some are just average, but many are great at mag. -6 to -8 if you get a good flash from the rotating antenna.

Thanks again chaps,

Good hunting.

Doug

[lunator]

doug

I am thinking of giving this a try.

15s is the maximum my camera will go to.

Cheers

Ian