Iridium Flare

We were lucky enough to be able to observe a -8 magnitude Iridium flare last night here on Kitt Peak. In this view, the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope dome is directly beneath the Iridium satellite as it surges in brightness from nearly invisible to its peak brightness of about -8 in just a few seconds. The bright star Arcturus is visible near center at top - in fact, if you are familiar with the constellation, you can see Bootes laying on its side with the Iridium flare within it. If you'd like to see an Iridium flare, check out the heavens-above.com website and enter your latitude and longitude and then see when the next visible flare will be - the more negative the brightness, the brighter it should appear in the sky overhead. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 13 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 100.