Lacrosse 4 lucky shot

Date 06323.78 - The past days has seen the same frustrating pattern: either a fully clouded day, or a day with clear skies in daytime and midnight, but clouds in the evening and morning.

This evening however, I made a very lucky shot of Lacrosse 4 (00-047A, #26473) as it traversed Lyra at 40 degrees altitude in the west. There was a gap in the clouds, I stood on the courtyard, waiting with my DCF clock in hand and camera ready, watching the clouds move in again, muttering to myself and the Lacrosse: "Come on, COME ON...!". Then Lacrosse 4 cleared the roof, I triggered the camera, followed by 10 tense seconds before it opened, another 10 seconds of exposure with the sat running for the clouds, and then a "whew!" from me as the exposure finished just seconds before Lacrosse 4 disappeared in the clouds. A very close call!

Below image shows I am not kidding. This has been a very lucky shot. Obtained 2 points with good residues (the bright star on the image is Vega).

(click image to enlarge)