Friday 9 September 2011

Iridium Flare

On 2011-08-05 between 21:30 and 21:32 UTC, I imaged an Iridium flare with a Canon EOS DSLR camera fixed in azimuth an elevation. The track and the change of brightness is very clear in the image.


The flare was produced by Iridium 60 and it achieved magnitude -5 at the location (40.184N,6.305W) in Boada (Salamanca-Spain). Estimated maximum magnitude was -8 at the flare centre located at a distance of 10 km. Central position of the flare in altitude and azimuth was (40, 70(ENE)). I recommend to observe these flares because it is quite impresive event. During few seconds the flare is the brightest element in the sky. Unavoidable to use heavens-above to forecast the flares in your location.