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Photographer:

BAbernethy

Location of Photo:

Banff

Date/Time of photo:

December 20, 2014 1:30AM

Equipment:

Canon 5D Mark III Zeiss 21mm f2.8 lens

Description:

I took this shot of a fireball meteor while out hunting the Aurora Borealis on December 20, 2014 at 1:30AM. The shot was taken from Johnson Lake in Banff National Park, Canada. A late Geminid meteor perhaps?

Comments


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ali matinfar

January 2, 2015 at 10:19 am

Lucky shot!

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BAbernethyPost Author

January 2, 2015 at 11:17 am

Thanks!

I was thinking the same until I considered how many late nights and how much research I have put into this art/hobby. This was taken at 1:30AM when most are asleep. lol!

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January 3, 2015 at 10:45 am

I was just thinking about how much effort you have put in, to share this wonderful moment with us. Congrats. Have a great 2015.

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January 2, 2015 at 6:41 pm

Wasn't it an iridium flare?

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BAbernethyPost Author

January 2, 2015 at 10:36 pm

Iridium Flares have a few notable differences. In this case factors such as the speed, magnitude of light and fragmentation definitely come into play. This fireball went across the sky very quicky - in a matter of a second or less - compared to iridium flares which are slower than the slowest meteor. An iridium flare at best is as bright as 1/4 of the moon - this was extremely bright - it lit up the entire area. In fact when you manage to photograph an iridium flare you are often surprised that you caught one(I have never seen one with the naked eye - only on camera). And the fireball broke up into at least 3 fragments before fading away - also not characteristic of iridium flares. Also, the size of the object relative to the mountain for example is much bigger than what you would see from an iridium flare. For comparison google "iridium flare images" and find a shot that has a subject in the horizon with an iridium flare. You will see that iridium flares are small gashes of reflected light relative to what we see here.

More than you wanted to know?

Thanks,

Brett

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Rusty Moore

January 3, 2015 at 3:05 pm

Plus, the light curve of an Iridium flare is smooth, while this shows irregularity in the brightness as the object moved through the sky, which is what you get when meteors fragment.

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BAbernethyPost Author

January 4, 2015 at 5:12 pm

Yes, Excellent point! The irregularity is directly related to it breaking up in the atmosphere.

Thanks.

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jaime

January 3, 2015 at 2:21 am

Could have being a spacial garbage ??; very lucky to seei, and luckier go give an excelent shot, for us; lucky to see it through your pic.

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January 5, 2015 at 11:04 am

Stunning photograph - especially the illumination of the clouds. Very unlikely to be a Geminid, however, as the track isn't right; this fireball appears to originate from Taurus area rather than Castor / Pollux, the starts adjacent to the Geminid radiant much further east.

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