ronrisman

The Magic of the Night Sky

I was sitting out under the night sky in 20 Mule Team Canyon in Death Valley National Park. I had just downloaded the Sputnik! app that afternoon and while hang...
Read more

I was sitting out under the night sky in 20 Mule Team Canyon in Death Valley National Park. I had just downloaded the Sputnik! app that afternoon and while hanging out with other photographers I decided to check it to see if there would be an iridium flare that evening. The app mentioned that a flare would make an appearance in about 20 minutes and gave me the direction of where the flare would makes it appearance. I had never seen an iridium flare and this was actually the first day I even knew such a phenomenon existed.

I grabbed my camera, placed it on a Gorillapod, and aimed it roughly in the direction of where it was supposed to appear. It was pitch black and I had no idea that two of the other photographers would be in my composition. I was shooting with a wide 14mm lens and despite my upward angle my field of view was enough to still retain an important part of the foreground, a surprise that I didn't discover until the capture was previewed.

I started a 10 second exposure about 3 seconds before the flare was supposed to be visible and much to my amazement, the reflection off the satellite appeared exactly when it was predicted and this was the resulting image from that single capture.

An Iridium Flare happens when the reflective surfaces on satellites reflect sunlight back toward Earth. When this happens the reflection appears as a brief, bright "flare".
Read less