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
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.