wpo - Iridium satellite glints

a network of polar communication sats by Motorola that brilliantly flash sunlight under favourable conditions with the downside they can spoil special astronomical images, if unexpected.  Minolta D7 on fixed tripod or SX CCD camera piggybacked on driven Mead LX200 [lower pair] centred on flash field.
solar system   art earth sats    Apollo 12 - 1969  ISS+Atlantistext & images [c]Maurice Gavin 2001-5

2005 Aug 21: Iridium 11 at mag -7 at dusk in the north over my dome.
Iridium 11 comms sat at mag -7 from Worcester Park Surrey -UK

2004 Sept 23: Via heavens-above.com a Brilliant Iridium 37 at -8 seen in bright twilight on meridian and later mag -1 Iridium 83 recorded in Pegasus with plane trail via Minolta D7 digicam - data on image. Okean O Rocket identified via heavens-above.com eg mag +2.8 polar satellite [seemed ~ mag+1-MG] moving south/north through Aquila/Cygnus/zenith/Ursa Minor recorded ~1944UT [Aquila] with the bright ISS moving west/east fading into the Earth's shadow near Altair at ~1947UT.

2001 Dec 28: Iridium 54 at mag -7 in Pisces/Aquarius borders centred at 17h57m34s in 50o wide Minolta D7 field in 16s exposure due south via fixed tripod.  Visually the glint was very impressive.

2001 Dec 5: Iridium 37 at mag -1 in Pisces/Aquarius borders centred at 17h55m00s in ~30o wide Minolta D7 field in 30s exposure due south.  Earlier Iridium 29 viewed, but not captured ie overexposed in twilight sky at 16:47:37UT;  mag-5 low in SW.

2001 Dec 1: Iridium 8 at mag -0 captured in Pisces/Cetus borders centred at 18h10m00s in 10o wide Minolta D7 field in 30s exposure in SSE.  Earlier Iridium 60 viewed, but not captured, at 16.53UT at mag-2 low in SW.  Comet Linear WM1 + satellite.

2001 Nov 15: Iridium 59 makes a mag -4 glint in Aquarius after dusk in perfect time with max brightness predicted at 17h 49m14s;  azimuth 169o [SSE]; altiude 39o.   The Heavens-Above predicted altaz plotted on Starglobe shareware, converted to RA & Dec and the Meade XL200 set to these co-ordinates.  The shutter pressed at 17h 49m 05s and held for 30s exposure.

2001 Feb 18: Iridium 59 glint at 18h49m35s UT recorded in Orion north of Betelgeuse but only suspected visually through fog !   Orion outline only just discernible in very poor conditions [limiting visual mag (LVM) = mag2] but amazingly the 2 minute exposure penetrated to mag 9 stars as checked later via Megastar software.    The glint at mag -1 was not intense as -8 maximum some 30km east of Worcester Park.

 reduced 2003 Nov 9  visitors 512 21/8/05