Iridium Flare Over Brittany
December 21, 2003
Provided and copyright by: Laurent Laveder, Optics of the Atmosphere Gallery
Summary authors & editors: Laurent Laveder
This photo was taken on November 16, 2003 over Brittany, France and shows a magnitude -4 iridium flare. The Sun had set at 16:36 Universal Time (UT) or about 1 hour before this picture was captured. Iridium flares result when Sun reflects off of the Iridium series of telecommunication satellites. This flare was from the Iridium 64 satellite and was about as bright as Venus.
Technical details: 28 mm lens at 1:2.8, 1 minute exposure on 200 ASA film.
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