We got a lucky shot of Andromeda with a meteor crossing our view.
Apparently we shot a satellite flare next to Andromeda.
Images:
- Samyang 135mm @2.8
- Fuji X-T5
- Star Adventurer 2i
- 465 x 30s
- ISO 200
Processing:
- stacking, stretching, background extraction and star separation in Siril
- final composition in Photoshop
Gorgeous! Feeling of motion, like the meteor would zip out of frame if you look away.
Honestly kinda looks more like a satellite flare with how symmetric it is.
btw, was any processing done to this?
Ha, thanks for letting me know. I didn’t know satellites can create flares like this. As all the other satellites were so dim I assumed it had to be something different.
For editing I chose the single sub with the flare and screen blended it in photoshop.
The satellites are normally dim, but sometimes the sun will hit them at just the right angle and reflect perfectly to you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3AFlare_Simulation.gif
The old Iridium sats were cool because they could get to -9 magnitude for a few seconds if you were in just the right spot. You can also have some satellites that flare every few seconds if they’re tumbling and keep hitting the sun at the right angle throughout the pass.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing. Your linked gif makes it very apparent that it was indeed a satellite.
I also searched in Stellarium and found a decommissioned military satellite called STSS Demo 2 that fits the path and time stamp perfectly.
-9 magnitude is insane, must’ve been a very cool sight.