Stars / Astronomy / Astrophotography / Telescopes / Astro

The iridium satellite is normally very faint, as it is tiny. But every now and then one of its three aluminium antennae catches the sunlight and projects a beam of sunlight down on us. This flare lasts just a couple of seconds and can be brighter than Venus before it fades back to its usual dim level, usually right on the limit of visibility to the naked eye.

The ISS is huge in comparison, and reflects enough light off its many surfaces to stay bright for the 2.5 minutes of that shot.

It's an iridium flare, that's what they do! It's a reflection of the Sun off a very shiny surface. At max brightness you're getting max reflection. Looks like this IRL:

I've just found out they're going to end soon as the satellites are being de-orbited :(

http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/iridium-flares-cease-end-2018

get out and see them while you can! They are predictable and there are several per night usually. It's a strange experience to pinpoint a location in the sky and see the flare happen precisely on time; it's one of the rare situations where you can see real proof that you live on a ball with things constantly flying around in orbit

Forgot to say, great photos @Ludd - really need to get out with my camera/telescope this winter!

Cheers @frankenbike. Yes, you should. If you have time to spare. And dark skies.

Plenty of dark up here in Scotland! I could easily go camping overnight in Galloway/Kielder dark sky parks some time. Time is the hard bit, maybe Nov :)

Blimey, yes you have some darkness up there!

Thanks both, I'm going to try and spot one soon

proof that you live on a ball

Say what now?

This is a good website for seeing what's about. https://heavens-above.com/main.aspx

ISS is viewable at a sensible time all this week.

Thanks for the ISS heads up, took the kids out to watch it go over, it was very bright coming out of the twilight in the west and an excellent sight

Cool. And this website's good for finding out who's currently in the ISS. http://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com

At work, London, there is normally only one 'star' I can see because London and all the lights at work. It's currently South and about 20degrees up from the horizon. It's always orange. What am I looking at?

Mars!

Oh wow! Thanks

ISS again, this time with bonus plane

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Any recommendations for a budget telescope ? Or where I should be looking for secondhand if that’s a good option? And what I should be looking for?

That's a v tricky question - it depends so much on what sort of things you want to look at, whether you might want to take photos through it, what sort of light pollution you have, how much space you have to store it...

In London skies, planets and the moon are good targets but the planets are all very low in the sky for a few years yet. If that is what appeals, I would suggest you go for something with long focal length to get high magnification, perhaps a compound (lenses and mirrors in combination) scope which can be v compact, but a bit pricy.

I've got one of these which I'd recommend: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

Was able to see the stripes on Jupiter with it from Crystal Palace, so pretty decent I'd say.

I think most places will recommend getting a Dobsonian for your first scope, as you get the biggest aperture for your money (as the mount is much cheaper than the equatorial mount you'll get on other scopes).

The main downside is it's got what's called a helical focuser. Basically you adjust the focus by screwing the eyepiece in/out, which has a bit of slop and isn't as fine as the adjustments you get with a rack & pinion style focuser. Aside from that I'd say it's a great starter scope.

Two rules for buying telescope, spend most of your money on aperture and mount quality, these two will have the greatest effect on your viewing pleasure.

Secondly, the bigger the scope the less it will get used as a 30kg monster is no fun to spontaneously shift outside and setup.

Classic starter scopes are the Schmidt Cassegrains, Meade and Celestron are two big brands.

Lastly avoid electric goto scopes unless you're spending 1000's.

Lastly Lastly, check out the Baker Street Irregulars. A free stargazing club in Regent's Park run over the winter. You can look through loads of scopes and chat to the owners, every single one will have a strong opinion!

Decent, moderate magnification binoculars are a good place to start.

I'd avoid anything astronomical and get a cheapish spotting scope. You'll be able to carry it around and use it for birdwatching, spying on people a long way away, as well as getting decent views of the planets.

I think the First Light Optics has a good guide to types of scopes. They seem a really helpful bunch of people.

I have a fat Schmidt-Cassegrain which I rarely use, and a little 70mm refractor which I use a little bit. In fact most of what I do these days is with some 10x42 binoculars and taking wide field photos.

Thanks for all your replies everyone!

@ludd what will 10x 42 binoculars allow you to see?

I’ll defo check out baker st irregulars!

These binoculars will show a few galaxies and nebulae that you might struggle to see without them, but they're best for just soaking up the fields of stars in the Milky Way. Possibly of limited use under London skies - I have moved out to near Aylesbury where the skies are better.

10 x 42 binoculars ftw.. I’ve only ever seen the Milky Way properly three times, above the peaks of the Italian alps 1980, above a jungle canopy in the natal game park 1995, staying under canvas in the Utah desert outside Moab 2015 all spectacular viewing.

Nice view of Mars last night very close to the Moon, assume will be similar tonight