Some classical objects taken with Canon EOS 5D around 0h UTC on 11 June 2006 from POR under strong light pollution and full Moon, average seeing, some clouds.

Cyg: 85/1.2 stopped down to 1.4, 22s at ISO 800, deep-sky filter, cropped to FOV = 17°

M13: C11, 2x 30s at ISO 3200, FOV = 19'

Planetary Nebulae with C11 (total FOV = 19'):
- M57: 2x 30s at ISO 3200
- NGC 6818: 3x 15s at ISO 3200 + 2x 30s at ISO 1600
- NGC 6826: 30s at ISO 1600

Jean-Luc Dighaye,

Résumé: flash Iridium double simultané, l'un des satellites dépassant la magnitude -8. POR Munich, 12 juin 2006 à 23h59.

Yesterday evening, a flare from Iridium 52 front antenna MMA0 was foreseen at POR Munich, in Virgo, -8 magnitude at 23:59:02 local time according to http://heavens-above.com and -6.5 mag according to http://calsky.com. The latter source indicated that Iridium 98, a spare satellite with unknown status, might flare (also from MMA0 front antenna) to -6.2 mag one second earlier (23:59:01), only 3.5° apart from the Iridium 52 flare, in Bootes.
Both flares went beyond expectations, the brightest one from Iridium 52 exceeding -8 mag, and the other one being almost as bright. It was the most spectacular Iridium event I ever saw.

Image: Canon EOS 5D, 60s exposure time, 85/1.2 lens stopped down to f/2.2, ISO 160. Image cropped to 20° field of view.

Jean-Luc Dighaye