![iridium flare iridium flare](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a0o2vlVR9js/UfYjIKa-ZSI/AAAAAAAAB1o/ROu9JRrppUs/s1600/iridium+flare+-2.jpg)
It's not natural to see a starlike object glow so brilliantly. "I've been lucky enough to witness a few –8 passes and can only describe the experience as alarming. "A really bright one can take your breath away," wrote Bob King, who is also a writer here on Universe Today. Normally these machines drift along like a faint star, but when the sunlight catches the side just right, out comes the flash.
#Iridium flare Patch
Today, pointing to a dark patch of night sky just before it flares up like a supernova is. Iridium Flare by Roel Funcken, released 01 March 2016 1. "Tilt your head or your screen!?"Īccording to a July Sky & Telescope article, the constellation includes 66 satellites-down from the planned 77-and is named after element 77 in the periodic table. Space 3 April 2007 IN ANCIENT times, it would have guaranteed you godlike status. The third sequence on the video might look a little odd, but Legault said he rotated the camera 90°. In video you can see the real speed of the event." "But last summer I filmed three of them in the Big Dipper and Orion, and they were so bright a pond reflected the flare. "Usually they are photographed in long exposures," Legault told Universe Today via email. And now astrophotographer Thierry Legualt has caught them in action on a video. Hopefully these points might lead yourself or a few other readers to check their "specialness" out before they are all a thing of the past.Because most of these satellites are still under control by their parent company, their flare timings are easy to predict. Note most satellite flares (non-Iridiums) can not be anticipated ahead-of-time because other satellites (few exceptions) don't have the same particulars of configurations that make Iridium satellite "flares" religiously predictable events.Īpologies if I read your post all wrong. Your post didn't mention this experience, so I'm not sure you were familiar with this uniqueness as well. #2 the prediction model that allows one to go out and expect the event to happen and then to experience the event on-cue in the correct location of sky also lends to the fascination and uniqueness of such an event. Saying you saw many while in very dark places and recommend image intensifiers for viewing may suggest you might be unfamiliar with this unique type of event. #1 the tremendous visual brightness these events rise to and can be seen from the most light polluted locations on the planet.
![iridium flare iridium flare](http://www.satobs.org/image/irflare2.jpg)
![iridium flare iridium flare](http://www.astroverde.org/images/Iridium/Iridium%2037-51%20Holmes.jpg)
Here are two major unique things about Iridium flares: So starting with the assumption that you don't appreciate the uniqueness (as nowhere in your post did you demonstrate such), So at least I'm led to believe you are operating on incorrect information which would lead to your biased indifference. It seems in your post, there is the common mistake of equivocation on the meaning of the word, and ignoring of the difference between "Iridium flares" and "satellites flares" which are NOT quite the same.Īs the one(Iridium flares) is a small and unique subset of the other (satellite flares), and the other(satellite flares) nowhere closely satisfies the category of the one (Iridium flares). These have also been mistaken for other things like a supernova because of their pulsating appearance. It doesn't sound like you are familiar with the distinction of the high brightness flares of the antennae of the Iridium communications satellites. An iridium flare can look identical to a fireball photographically - which is a very bright meteor. Note I can only go on information that you have provided since I am not a mind-reader,īut from the info and way in which you describe things in your above post, Too faint to see with the eye, but with night vision devices they're zipping all over the place. Wanna see more satellites - get a PVS 7D or PVS 14 and park yourself in the middle of no-where - **** reflecting satellites every where. I work nights and for 15 years one of my night jobs involved being out on the high prairies of North Dakota and Montana, far from civilization, from sundown to sun rise, these incidences of visually reflected light from satellites was a nightly thing. I have seen them too many times to count and long realized it's just sunlight reflecting off a satellite in orbit. Not trying to be a or anything, but what has been all the hoopla about iridium flares.