IAbout 9.30 on Saturday 3 March 2012 I went oout to try and capture an image of comet Garradd with my DSLR. At mag 6.8 it is in range of a 20 sec exposure, but the small size of the object coupled with light pollution from street lamps and the Moon made for a very challenging target.
Having just taken the first image towards the North East and Ursa Major, I saw a bright orange light approaching from the North.
My first reaction was that it was an aircraft…..
There were no navigation lights so then decided must be a helicopter….
There was no sound so decided must be a satellite….
It was about magnitude -3 or -4, so not unusual for a bright satellite or Iridium flare in that part of the sky but it was far too orange in colour. So I had been watching for some seconds before deciding it was worth imaging.
As I took a 10 second image, the object faded out and so at this point I still believed it was a satellite and went back to comet hunting.
I gave up about ten o’clock and checked the images on the camera screen before settling down in front of the TV. No detectable comet but on zooming in on the “satellite” trail the brightness looked “lumpy” compared to other satellite images I have taken. I decided to verify with Calsky or Heavens-Above and check for tumbling Iridiums on Sunday morning.
I was a little surprised when I went online next morning and saw extensive reports of a fireball on the BBC, Twitter and Facebook. I checked the image time and it was spot on and corresponded with the early reports.
I used the photo to immediately submit a report to the Society for Popular Astronomy Meteor Section. The camera provided an accurate time for the image and the background stars show the end point for the trail around e Draco. Robin Scagel the SPA Vice President was in touch very quickly and is using my photo along with an image from the Bayfordbury all-sky camera to get an accurate trajectory. Robin estimates the end point was somewhere around Northampton.
As it turned out Robin had also been out imaging comet Garradd with a CCD and 300mm, 66mm refractor. His image convinced me that comet Garradd would look like just a background star on a DSLR image at best.
So no comet, but at least the exercise got me outside and there to witness a meteor that seems to have caught the news up and down the country.
Technical details for the image: Canon EOS 550D DSLR and 18mm lens. 10 second exposure at f5.6 and ISO800 with auto white balance. Camera was on a tripod and I used a 2 second timer delay to avoid any camera shake from triggering the shutter. Images edited using the curves tool in GIMP to enhance the mid-tones.
By Danny Thomas
Mar 2012