Photography of two or more simultaneous Iridium Flares

hi Sean,

very interesting . . . your predictions for Tullamore show two mid-evening flares very closely spaced in time which are different to the ones I dug out for Newtown (early am).

So they're NOT the ones you mentioned John?!?!? Well, on heavens-above.com those 5 pass predictions were the only ones given fo Tullamore tonight! Funny...

Albert, I looked at that .txt link, and it seems like way too much work! :shock: But, good thinking John on the idea of the tracking... are you going to do all the maths???

Local forecast right now: windy/wet/damp/cold/breezy/rain/typhoons...

Cheers,

Seanie.

Might be a good opportunity for film photographers to try photographing the Iridium streaks by leaving the shutter open on e.g a 2 minute exposure. There will be very little star trailing in this time frame, and the flares should be bright enough to come out on the film.

Now for the weather...

Cheers,

Seanie.

Seanie,

Unless you have truly dark skies I would advise against a 2-min exposure as sky glow will kill the final photo and not to mention that star trailing will be serious. It is best to have a double exposure with as little slack as possible when it comes to the length of the exposure(s) in order to get as black a background as possible and to also minimize star trailing as well. For the latter, of course, it also depends on the altitude of the proposed passes with higher altitude passes not being as easily affected with star trails as lower passes (for obvious reasons).

Now, if you can piggy-back your camera onto a motorized GEM, trailing is a non-issue.

Anthony.

Seanie,

if you can piggy-back your camera onto a motorized GEM, trailing is a non-issue.

Anthony.

If only Anthony... would you have a spare winning lottery ticket for me??

By the way, congratulations again on having your extraordinary photo's printed around the world again!

Seanie.

Hang on a second, why would ther ever be a double flare?

Iridium are 66 communications satellites placed uniformly around the planet in low earth orbit at 780 kilometers above us. If there were two flares similtaneously, or close together, that would imply that there were satellites close together, and they arnt meant to be!

Cheers,
~Al

p.s. just noticed that Iridiums logo is the seven stars of the plough. Wonder what James Connoly would think!

Al,

Double and triple (!) flares were possible a few years ago when the satellite constellation was in development. These days such pairing is much more infrequent but it does occur occasionally due to satellites being moved in and out of position - for example, there are spare Iridium satellites already in orbit acting as "backups" and it is for this reason that we Iridium numbers such as 904, 905 etc.

Anthony.

Seanie,

if you can piggy-back your camera onto a motorized GEM, trailing is a non-issue.

Anthony.

If only Anthony... would you have a spare winning lottery ticket for me??

Would you believe me if I were to say that I would give you one if I did have the luxury of such a ticket? Or at least a crystal ball.

By the way, congratulations again on having your extraordinary photo's printed around the world again!

Thank you for the kind words! The reception has been much more than I ever dreamed of or expected.

There will also be an article in S&T later this year or the first part of 2005 in relation to this multi-year marathon project which has me very excited.

Anthony.