Very bright Iridium

Last night while meteor watching i set the camera up for a 30sec exposure and pointed it in the NW. I turned around to the south to cover as much sky as possible. When my exposure was finished i got quit a shock. A long very bright streakin my image. I would reckon about -5mag as it was only on ISO50. I nearly 100% sure its a iridium flare thought it's a strange path

It was alot darker on the computer so i brightened it up

Conor and i done two sessions from 19.10 - 22.15, only seen 16 meteors in all, this was a Taurid watch as the Leonids had not risen yet, we where spurred on to do a watch after reading about Kevins fireball sighting. Most of the meteors observed where faint and at one time i seen a burst of 3 at the same time but from 3 different radiants, i seen Taurids, Sporadics, Andromedids. WOW that was a cold evening with a heavy crisp ground frost and air frost, the frost from the previous night never thawed out at all, the clouds began to thicken which produced a lovely colourful Moon Corona. It soon became overcast for the rest of the night. Conor got a bright moving object on a 30 sec expsoure, his back was turned at the time so he didnt see it visually however there was a very bright white trail that looked like a long bar in a west - east orientation at least mag - 4.0? maybe it was an iridum flare?

Lovely image Conor..looks great on the computer screen!!! Can anyone tell us of any bright flares visible yesterday evening?

Thanks

Can anyone tell us of any bright flares visible yesterday evening?

Have a check on www.heavens-above.com for a shot...

Search Period Start: 13:46, Wednesday, 16 November, 2005
Search Period End: 14:46, Friday, 18 November, 2005
Observer's Location: Maghera ( 54.8500°N, 6.6670°W)
Local Time: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT + 0:00)


Date Local
Time Intensity
( Mag) Alt. Azimuth Distance to
flare centre Intensity at
flare centre
(Mag.) Satellite
17 Nov 05:43:30 -1 14° 41° (NE ) 100.7 km (E) -6 Iridium 39
17 Nov 05:52:52 -6 16° 44° (NE ) 22.4 km (W) -6 Iridium 38
17 Nov 05:53:01 -6 16° 44° (NE ) 5.7 km (E) -6 Iridium 80
17 Nov 06:01:25 -1 18° 47° (NE ) 92.1 km (W) -6 Iridium 17
18 Nov 05:26:44 -5 11° 37° (NE ) 40.6 km (W) -6 Iridium 17
18 Nov 05:37:23 -2 13° 41° (NE ) 106.3 km (W) -6 Iridium 15

so its not a iridium....

interesting image Conor,
Iridium or not, its still a very bright satellite!