Monday, June 20, 2011

Iridium Flare Over Lake Dillon


Iridium Flare Over Lake Dillon, originally uploaded by Fort Photo.


I managed to catch a bright -3 magnitude (-7 at center) Iridium Flare on Saturday night on a camping trip at Lake Dillon to celebrate Father's Day with my in-laws. The flare occurred at 22:53:37 and can be verified by the Heavens Above website Iridium Flare calculator here.

This is my third Iridium Flare to catch by luck when doing some night photography. For those new to them, Iridium Flares are caused by a constellation of highly reflective communication satellites (Iridium system) that regularly and predictably glint off the sun.