Stars .....

..... and stripes.

I've had an incredibly busy day at work today and an equally hectic evening at home trying to sort out bits and pieces before I have a bit of a break next week. All of this meant I didn't get a chance to think about taking any photos until after I'd finally eaten at 10:30 pm.

It's a lovely clear night so I decided to have another attempt at photographing a satellite trail. I've blipped Iridium flares before as they are very bright and relatively easy to capture on a long exposure, but until tonight hadn't managed to capture a fainter satellite trail.

The photo here shows the white trail of an H-2A ( rocket body ) passing through the sky at 11:24 pm. Most people think of satellites as the pieces of technology beaming TV and phone signals around the world, things that track the weather or as devices for spying. Although many satellites are just that, just as many are the discarded rocked bodies that took the technology up in to space. The rocket bodies are larger than the tech that they carry in to space which makes them generally easier to see flying overhead in the night sky.

The trail of this H-2A is shown passing through the handle of the plough formation. The orange line is a telephone cable with some very faint street light reflecting of it, which I hadn't spotted in the dark sky of the field I was stood in at the time.

As it's the first relatively faint satellite trail ( at mag 1.9 ) I've managed to photograph, today's blip is .....


..... Stars and stripes.

Better Large.


Post Script.
Thank you all for all the comments and lovely response to my last couple of blips, I've not had a chance to respond yet, but will do my best to catch up tomorrow. x