Minnesota (Twin Cities Area) Celestial Photo Op - Iridium flares

[scobols]

If anyone lives in MN between Albert Lea and Hibbing, there will be a celestial photo opportunity this Friday night.

"Two Iridium communications satellites will each reflect the sun about 7:23 p.m., glinting far brighter than our brightest planets ever get, for about 10 seconds."

Read about it here:
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/988168.html

Here is a past photo and explination how it was done:
http://www.derbyastronomy.org/IridiumFlares2006.htm

I don't think I will see it from my home but it would be cool if someone on POTN caught it!

[milleker]

Every time I try to go out and capture these its cloudy!

http://www.heavens-above.com/ is a good site devoted to astronomy and satellite sightings - including iridium flares. Just plug in your coordinates or Zip Code.

[Mark_Cohran]

Wow, what a small window of opportunity. Any photographer that can get a good shot of that will impress me. Good luck to anyone who gives it a try!

Mark

[milleker]

That it is, but the good thing is that you can set up your camera in the basic direction of the prediction of the flare and at what angle and just open the shutter. It is said that star trails develop at 12 seconds which I wouldn't want for Iridium flare shots. So my plan was always to stick with 8-10 second exposures, continually firing them off during the predicted time.