Celestia Forums

Yesterday I was at an Astronomy meeting(the topic was the five visible planets) and the man conducting the meeting said that it had a surprise for as. At ~16:37 GMT he said: look to the north in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.... and we saw a star appear and the dissapear. I knew it had to be a satellite, but I didnt know what it was, till he explained. It was my first Iridium. I thougth that they are like the ISS, that you see crossing the sky, but it wasnt...
Really beautiful

Thomas Guilpain provides the set of Iridium satellites for Celestia here or directly from here

maxim

http://www.heavens-above.com

Fill in your location details, and you'll see all the visible iridium flares listed for your location, every night!

I haven't been out in ages, but the last time I was, I saw three that were brighter than mag -5 in 90 minutes

Wait a minute. These are satellites that look briefly like really bright stars, and then disappear from view?

I wonder if that might explain my freakout moment a few months ago - I was walking back from the cinema at night, glanced up, noticed a really bright star in front of me. Looked down as I passed under a tree, and when I looked up again the bright star was gone, and there was no sign of it anywhere else in the sky!

Could that have been an iridium flare?

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:Could that have been an iridium flare?

If it was moving, you probably saw an iridium flare.
It becomes brighter and brighter, than fading way.

Iridium flares are visible even in bright daylight!!!

IF wheter conditions are good tonight, I will be able to see two in 2 minutes, almost at the same position...
Az: 359?(N) Alt: 12?
Az: 359?(N) Alt: 14?

I saw both, very nice. It was soooooo little time between both of them, and almost at the same place!
The first one was as bright as venus and the second one not so bright, but also beautifull

Adirondack wrote:

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:Could that have been an iridium flare?

If it was moving, you probably saw an iridium flare.
It becomes brighter and brighter, than fading way.

Iridium flares are visible even in bright daylight!!!

Wow, I wonder if this was an Iridium Flare that a few of us thought was a UFO when returning from a soccer match many years ago. A bright light suddenly appeared in the sky to the west, then gradually faded away. However, I don't remember it moving, it just seemed to hover.

The date was October 29th 1983.
Location was near Penistone, Yorkshire, and the time was around 5:30pm.
Any way of checking ?

regards
TERRIER

The first Iridium communications satellite was launched in May of 1997, so you saw something else.

http://www.rod.sladen.org.uk/iridium_launch.htm

In the rare situation that a falling star directly points at you, you might also watch such an effect, because you don't see it from the side but from the very front.

maxim

I just saw my first Iridium flare tonight! Wow, very bright, quite impressive. It only last a few seconds and then I could it moving as it faded. It was a -5 and appeared in the sky exactly where and when the heavens-above web site had predicted. I look forward to seeing more of them.

Thank you ElPelado for making me aware of this phenomenon occuring nightly in our skies. And thank you JackHiggins for the link to heavens-above.com

You are welcome!
BTW: I've been seeing at least one on every night, very impressive...

Today I saw two more.
And at the morning, 7:22 am local time, there was one wit ha magnitude of -7, but it was cloudy so I couldnt see it
On the 25th I think there will be another daytime flare with magnitude of -7.3, and I hope there wont be clouds...

Saw one myself the other night; very strange and impressive.

ElPelado wrote:Today I saw two more.

Hey, El Pelado:
If you keep giving us information like this, we'll be able to work out exactly where you live.

Grant

Do you mean because of the time?

I don't quite get how the info on the Heavens Above site works....

Take a look here, for example - this says the azimuth is 253 degrees, and the map looks about right - I'll have to be looking to the WSW to see the flare, right?

Now look at this one - it says the azimuth is 349 degrees, but the map says I should look east?! So which one is right - the text or the map? Should I be looking just off north there, or east?

ElPelado wrote:Do you mean because of the time?

Iridium flares are pretty directional, so the timing and visibility depend on your latitude and longitude. You give me a crop of flares you've seen, and I could in theory work backwards to derive your location.

Grant

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:Now look at this one - it says the azimuth is 349 degrees, but the map says I should look east?! So which one is right - the text or the map? Should I be looking just off north there, or east?

If I understand it correctly, the map only shows where the best place to look at the flare is (the "flare center"). If you would drive (or possibly swim) 20 km from your location in the direction given on the map you could see the flare with maximum brightness (-7 instead of -2). But in both cases you would have to look at 349° (~N) to see the flare.

Harald

Harry wrote:

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:Now look at this one - it says the azimuth is 349 degrees, but the map says I should look east?! So which one is right - the text or the map? Should I be looking just off north there, or east?

If I understand it correctly, the map only shows where the best place to look at the flare is (the "flare center"). If you would drive (or possibly swim) 20 km from your location in the direction given on the map you could see the flare with maximum brightness (-7 instead of -2). But in both cases you would have to look at 349° (~N) to see the flare.

Harald

OK, but in that case, if the flare centre is 20 km off to the east of me, why do I have to look north to see it?! If I'm right under the flare centre, shouldn't I have to be looking straight up since it'd be directly overhead?