Venus, the Seven Sisters and a Bright Iridium Flare

We've got beautiful spring weather and clear, moonless skies right now. The night sky always has something good to offer.

Right now brilliant Venus is the brightest thing in the western skies. It is currently making a close passage with the Pleiades star cluster (aka The Seven Sisters & M45) -- its the little group of stars to the upper right of Venus in the photo above.

This evening we also had a bright iridium flare visible, shining at magnitude -6.9. That's it above, gliding through the stars that make up the hindquarters of Leo, the lion.

Iridium Flare!

It is fun to watch bright satellites, especially the super bright and super fleeting ones known as Iridium flares. Last night might have been the brightest Iridium flare I've ever seen. It checked in at magnitude -7 and here's how it looked shooting across the stars of Hercules:

Canon T3i, 18mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 30 sec - cropped from the full frame

I use CalSky to get my satellite predictions. The free service provides lots of details, including not only where and when to look in the sky from your location, but also where to go to get the best possible view of the event.

I was a mere 2.8 km from the center line, best view of this Iridium flare. If I had set up there it would have been 0.3 magnitudes brighter, not enough to make me move from the convenience of my back yard. The view from there was certainly good enough.

Satellites! Progress is Their Middle Name

It was a good evening for watching satellites as there was an iridium flare, the International Space Station and an unexpected bonus.

ISS & Iridium Flare Canon T3i, 18mm, 30 sec., ISO 3200

The streak at left is the International Space Station (ISS). The small one to the right is the iridium flare which I unfortunately caught just moments after its maximum brightness. There's also a jet contrail in the image running somewhat horizontally underneath them.

ISS & Progress Module Canon T3i, 18mm, 30 sec., ISO 3200

As the ISS climbed higher in the northern sky I noticed the unexpected bonus. It is probably a bit hard to see here, so let's look at a crop from the full frame:

Can you spot it? Look at the bright, trailed streak of the ISS and notice that there is a fainter line out ahead of it. According to NASA that is the trail of the Progress 53 cargo craft that is currently undocked from the ISS. It is easier to see in the next shot.

ISS & Progress Module Canon T3i, 18mm, 30 sec., ISO 3200

It is relatively easy to see the Progress module, but here's the crop of the full frame to make it even easier to see:

Again, the bright light is the full ISS and the faint line is the Progress module that is currently leading the ISS in orbit. According to the NASA site I linked above the Progress is doing "two days of free-flying orbital tests" and will re-dock with the ISS on Friday morning.

The Progress module is so much fainter than the ISS because it is so much smaller than the ISS. It checks in at being 7.23 meters long, whereas the ISS is about the size of a football field. 

The first time I ever saw co-orbital satellites like this was back in the day when the Space Shuttle was visiting the Russion Mir space station. It was pretty exciting back then and certainly great fun to see something similar tonight.

ISS & Progress Module Canon T3i, 18mm, 30 sec., ISO 3200

Here's my last view of the ISS as it passed behind my palo verde tree.  It was a nice evening for watching satellites and enjoying the moonless skies of International Dark Sky Week.

Signs of Spring and an Iridium Flare

The desert southwest didn't get much of a winter this past season. And while the weather hasn't show much of a change as we've moved into spring, there are still signs of spring on the ground and in the skies.

Canon T31, 18mm, 25 seconds, ISO 3200

The palo verde tree (Arizona's official state tree) that lives in our front yard is in full bloom, a sign here in the desert that spring has sprung. I took the shot above last night. Also in the shot are the stars of the Big Dipper, which stands high in the our evening skies in spring.

The reason I was out with my camera was to catch this:

Canon T31, 18mm 30 seconds, ISO 3200

A magnitude -5.8 Iridium flare that was visible in the northern part of the sky. Iridium flares are reflections of sunlight off of satellites that can be some of the brightest things seen in the night sky. I caught this one very near the star of the Little Dipper.  That's Polaris, the North Star, just above and left of the flare. Polaris is the star that marks the end of the handle of the dipper.

Sky Shots from the Week

There's almost always something interesting to see in the sky. In the day, at twilight and in the night there are sights to see. "It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross."*

There were lots of nice sights here this week with a great pairing of Venus and the Moon, a bright Iridium flare, hot air balloons and more. Have a look.

Here's Venus and the crescent Moon as seen on the 6th:

The Moon moves quite a lot from one night to the next. Here's the view from the 7th:

Also, on the 7th we had a bright (magnitude -6) Iridium flare visible. I almost missed getting a shot of it and literally had just plopped the camera tripod into position as it was getting started. 

Saturday's sunrise:

Once the Sun works its way into the sky it becomes time to launch hot air balloons. We had 3 of them in the sky visible simultaneously this morning. Here's a rather poor wide shot showing them. Some nicer, detailed shots follow.

*Yeah, that was a quote from Q in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Q Who.

This Evening's Bright Satellites

It is fun and easy to spot satellites. I like to use CalSky to give me personalized reminders of when and where to look.

This evening we had a bright iridium flare. It was shining at magnitude -5.6, but only 17.6 degrees above the horizon. I didn't have my camera quite set when I spotted the satellite. I plunked it down and grabbed this shot just in time:

Canon 3Ti 18-55mm lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 5 sec.

We also had a bright passage of the International Space Station this evening. At its highest it was 68 degrees above the horizon and shining at -4.3. Here are two shots combined into one frame from the end of the passage:

Canon 3Ti 18-55mm lens, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 2 30 sec. exposures

The bright star just to the right of my house and the trail of the ISS is Vega in the constellation of Lyra, the harp.