Metop-B, 2 Days After Launch
Taken by Marco Langbroek on September 19, 2012 @
Leiden, the Netherlands
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Camera Used: Canon Canon EOS 60D
Exposure Time: 10/1
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 1000
Date Taken: 2012:09:19 23:51:21
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Details:
On Sep 17, 2012, a Soyuz rocket launched the second European MetOp weather satellite, MetOp-B, from Baikonur. In the evening of the 19th, 2 days after the launch, clearings in the cloud cover allowed me to photograph this pass of MetOp-B from the centerof Leiden, the Netherlands, near 20:44 UT when the satellite was passing through Lyra (brightest star in image is Vega).
The satellite was not too bright (edge of naked eye from Leiden town center) during this pass. Its 2006 sister ship MetOp-A is naked eye during favorable passes and occasionally flares to -2, and I expect MetOp-B to be similar once fully operational.
A second very faint trail can be seen on the image, going obliquely up from the end of the MetOp-B trail. This is some space debris: an old Russian rocket stage from the 1982 lauch of Kosmos 1410.
Camera: Canon EOS 60D + EF 2.5/50mm Macro lens, 1000 ISO, 10 seconds. Movement of the satellite is from left to right.
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