Josh Beasley
12/11/11 - Iridium 70 satellite flare
You'll have to forgive the complete lack of composition and all that, I was mostly just trying to find out if I could actually catch something like this. I unfortunately missed the brightest part of the flare as it started a couple seconds early. According to calculations, it has an orbiting speed of 16,695mph. Not much room to miss. :)
These flares are caused when panels from a satellite (Iridium 70 in this case) reflect sunlight back at earth, causing a brief and sometimes intense flare in the sky.
12/11/11 - Iridium 70 satellite flare
You'll have to forgive the complete lack of composition and all that, I was mostly just trying to find out if I could actually catch something like this. I unfortunately missed the brightest part of the flare as it started a couple seconds early. According to calculations, it has an orbiting speed of 16,695mph. Not much room to miss. :)
These flares are caused when panels from a satellite (Iridium 70 in this case) reflect sunlight back at earth, causing a brief and sometimes intense flare in the sky.