Four Iridium flares

[george7378]

Tonight was a great satellite-watching night, with four bright Iridium flares, one of which was around mag. -7, and three more low down on the horizon. I got pictures of them:

[LukeSkywatcher]

Are they all in that single image?

To be honest that image looks more like a meteor to me that a flare. I'm by no means an expert on flares or imaging but from all the images of flares i have seen..................the brightest part of the flare should be about half way along the "trail", as the flare grows in brightness and then fades out again. I have seen 3-4 flares with my naked eye and they were brightest about half way through.

P.S.~~~IF it is a flare OR a meteor.....................it is a blumming fine capture, so well done.

P.P.S~~~Maybe you caught the flare half way through and the brightest part of the image is the max light of it and then it slowly fades out.

[george7378]

Are they all in that single image?

To be honest that image looks more like a meteor to me that a flare. I'm by no means an expert on flares or imaging but from all the images of flares i have seen..................the brightest part of the flare should be about half way along the "trail", as the flare grows in brightness and then fades out again. I have seen 3-4 flares with my naked eye and they were brightest about half way through.

P.S.~~~IF it is a flare OR a meteor.....................it is a blumming fine capture, so well done.

P.P.S~~~Maybe you caught the flare half way through and the brightest part of the image is the max light of it and then it slowly fades out.

Hi - for some reason the other three images did not appear - they should be there now.

It was definitely a flare - I went out to watch it after it being predicted in Calsky, and it was very flare-like when I watched it. The shot did actually cut off before the flare finished, which made it look very meteor-like - so yes, I didn't quite manage to get the first one properly - a shame, as it was the brightest.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Ah ok i am with you now. Yes definitely the other 3 images are flares and look like flares. WELL DONE. They are beauts. That 1st image of the brightest would have been a KILLER shot if you managed to capture the whole thing.

Not to worry.

Amazing things to witness. I think the brightest flares are -8, so you were blessed to see a -7 flare.

[DarkerSky]

Nice one George. All of them super captures. A -7 flare is impressively bright. Must be near the top end of their magnitude range I would have thought.