Satellite Flash Near the Galactic Dark Horse
This is a satellite flash in what I think is the most interesting part of the sky. Below the flash is the Antares area. Just to the left is the Pipe Nebula and/or Galactic Dark Horse, and on further to the left is a nice bright swath of the Milky Way.
Check my fixed tripod astronomy page for this image in context, along with additional details and a link to a time lapse from this night during the 2015 Davis Mountains trip.
This appears to be Iridium 7 showing a double flare the morning of 11/15/12 from the Davis Mountains. The flare forecast magnitude was -6.6, and I was only 2 km from the flare's center. Not sure if the double is due to a reflection off 2 parts of one satellite, or is it a second satellite I'm not seeing mentioned on the "Heavens Above" site?
The 30-second exposure began at 5:14:18 a.m. The camera is facing south and that's Sirius in Canis Major on the mid-upper right. Blue Mountain is on the far left.
Time lapse image of sunrise over Blue Mountain. The initial brightening is the zodiacal light. Then Venus appears with bright star Spica nearby, that's Arcturus on the left. Saturn peeks up just before sunrise but you'll need to be viewing the full-screen HD version to see it. Nikon D7000 camera and super-wide angle Nikon 10-24mm lens at 10mm. Just over 2 hours compressed into about 7 seconds. See more, and more time-lapse videos, from the trip at this link.
| Davis Mtns | |
| Coordinates: | 30.5897° N, 104.0706° W |
| Elevation: | 6000 ft |
| Region: | Unknown |
| Time Zone: | Central Standard Time (GMT - 6:00) |
| edit | delete | Default | |
| Flare Details (Heavens Above) | |
| Date: | 15 November 2012 |
| Time: | 05:14:57 |
| Brightness: | -7 |
| Altitude: | 17° |
| Azimuth: | 187° |
| Satellite: | Iridium 7 |
| Distance to satellite: | 1888 km |
| Angle off flare centre-line: | 0.0° |
| Distance to flare centre: | 2 km |
| Flare producing antenna: | left |
| Sun altitude: | -27.5° |
| Angular separation from Sun: | 98.0° |
Above is a blend of all my images showing the double flare. There are 5 images at roughly 30 second exposures.
2012 Davis Mountains Astronomy Picture Page
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