Iridium Flare, Ballycasey, 1 April 07

Mag -8 !
WOW!
First time seeing and photographing an Iridium Flare.
This thing was BRIGHT!
It was visible for a lot longer than seen in the photo,
thats because I had the AP. stopped down a lot over the almost full Moon to the right, (you can kinda see the light spill)
and I just didn't know how bright this thing would get!

(no processing in photoshop, just cropped)
any comments, advice , hints, tricks, , magic spells, welcome!



Iridium Flare Details:
Date: Sunday, 01 April, 2007
Location: Hurlers Cross (52.716°N, 8.830°W)
Satellite: Iridium 62
Magnitude: -8 -8
Altitude: 38° 38°
Antenna (MMA): Right
Flare centre is at: 52.717°N, 8.769°W
Distance to centre: 4.1 km (2.5 miles)
Mirror angle: 0.1° 0.0°
Time: 22:37:44 22:37:44

I wouldn't do much with it Frank, the thing is so bright in the first place, and the background is not too bad.

That was one bright flare Frank! Is this a hand held shot?

No I set up with the tripod.
The exposure is about 40 sec.
Again, I wish I knew what I was doing cos that flare was way brighter
in reality.

Apart from perhaps selecting a higher ISO setting, I can't think of much. Obviously there's no point in taking a movie/stacking frames because it is a moving object. I'm not sure of the merits between high ISO's of chips versus film, but I kow that ISO 1600 is almost as good a view of what the eye could see at dusk/dawn conditions for such short exposures when taken with film.

Frank, one other thing about this brightness issue. If you had your timing device (wrist watch, digital clock, whatever) bang on to the same timing device as prediction websites (accurate ones are out there), then perhaps a lesser exposure time would be the key. The fact that your exposure is 40 seconds would, in my opinion, create a brighter background for which the flare (at about 5 to 10 seconds) could be seen against = less contrast between the two. If you aimed for exposing about say 10 to 15 seconds prior to flare-time, then stop immediately aftr, you should have a darker sky/backdrop, whilst the flare brightness would be the same.

Practice, as they say...

Seanie.