Hubble Space telescope Flare from Spain

Hi, just after spending the last week an Santa Pola ,Spain not far from Alicante. Before I left a knew that clear skies would regin all night so I brought with me my trusty camera. Also before leaving I checked heavens-above for any iridium satellittes etc, to my surprise I saw the the Hubble Space Telescope would make a low pass to the south of my vantage point on every evening the following week with a magnitude of 3.2 at best. When we got there we had clear skies but a lot of light pollution could not even see the Milky Waay.Got a chance to go viewing on the evening of August 23, I checked the website earlier that evening and sycronised my watch with the time on the website, also got the path through Saggittarius which it would take.Time of its pass was between civil and nautical twilight so sky was still bright

Right on cue I saw it at 9.36pm local time in Scorpius through my 7x50 binocs then to my surprise it became naked eye and brightened to about +0.5 magnitude for a second or two, was moving very slowly but kept in view for about 60 seconds.Lucky to catch it with this photo.

Ronan, That's a nice catch! Pity HST was'nt brighter, but that's the way it goes. Good work!

Keith..

Wow! nice once Ron. I didn't know the HST did flares!

Seanie.

Nice shot Ronan.

It is amazing what can be done with a tripod and a bit of know how.

Later,

Jed.