Satellite Page of

Ajay Talwar,

Home | Astronomical Calendar (India Centric) May'07 | June'07

Iridium Satellite Flare, 9 May 2007,  Evening time at 20:36, The Iridium 22 Flare was of magnitude -6.7. I travelled 4 kms & positioned myself right under this spotlight. It came out brighter than the previous -8 mag one. The flare was at 95° azimuth and 48° altitude, in Bootes constellation. The star close to the flare is Arcturus. I was surrounded by bright sodium vapour lights all around, and tall apartment buildings of Gurgaon. Reaching the spot just 15 minutes before the event I was not able to position better to get some good stuff in the foreground.

Camera - Nikon D70 on tripod
Datetime - 2007:05:09 20:36
Exposure time - 30 s
F-number - 4.5
Focal length - 50 mm
F.L. in 35mm film - 75 mm

An Iridium Satellite Flare, 5 May 2007,  This is as bright as they come, magnitude -8. The morning of 5th May at 04:03:57 the angle of the left antenna of Iridium-83 satellite just was right to spotlight my house at Gurgaon and the surrounding 5-6 km circle, and because of the advance email received from Calsky & second opinion from Heavens-above, I was under the spotlight to capture it. The flare was at 50° altitude on the border of Hercules & Ophiuchus constellations. The bright star on the right side of the picture is Alphecca, Rasalhague can be seen roughly in the middle on top of the picture, and Arcturus is shining brightly through the tree on the right bottom. The event lasted for about 15-20 seconds, the satellite appearing to naked eye about 10-15 seconds before the flare. But there is no time to set the camera after you have seen the satellite. I was continuously shooting 30seconds shots one after the other, and I was lucky to get the entire flare in one shot.

Camera - Nikon D70 on tripod
Datetime - 2007:05:04 04:04
Exposure time - 30 s
F-number - 6.3
Focal length - 18 mm
F.L. in 35mm film - 27 mm

Home | Astronomical Calendar (India Centric) May'07 | June'07