Iridium flares end with replacement satellites

[Merlin3189]

For a long time I'd heard about Iridium flares, but not taken much trouble to see one. This week I took advantage of the uncommon spell of clear nights to pop out and look at a couple.
Not quite what I'd expected, so I went to look into them a little more. One of the things I discovered is that I nearly missed them. Soon they will be no more. (end of 2018.)

I'll leave others more expert than I to supply any more info, but suggest anyone who wants to see one, gets on to Heavens Above and takes advantage of their next anticyclone.

 

[jedishrfu]

I guess this will open up a budding industry of creating them for fun and advertizing:

https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/rocket-lab-disco-ball-satellite-tracking

as in moonvertizing:

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/magazine/14Ideas-Section2-C-t-009.html

 

[Borek]

 

[jedishrfu]

Somewhere over the rainbow, somewhere far...

as I gaze at @Borek 's starry photo.

 

[NTL2009]

...
Not quite what I'd expected, so I went to look into them a little more. . .

I've seen a couple of high magnitude, and those were pretty impressive . Very bright and lasting about 10 seconds. You need to have your longitude and latitude entered accurately, the swath that the reflection hits is narrow and the brightness drops off sharply.

But a - 6 ~ - 8 mag in your area, on a clear night will be rare.

 

[davenn]

Soon they will be no more. (end of 2018.)

I couldn't be happier

They are a BL@@DY nuisance ... look too much like meteors and screw up my nice meteor observations and photos

Dave

 

[Merlin3189]

I couldn't be happier

Is that the first time I've seen you smile?

You should try living in a big city. There's not much to see in the sky dimmer than magnitude 1 this time of year. Good job I live near the airport.

 

[davenn]

Is that the first time I've seen you smile?

haha you obviously don't follow me or know me well enough on PF …. go look at my posts in the lame and science jokes sections

You should try living in a big city.

I do, Sydney, Oz is over 5 million people and I am deep within the red zone ……

each of those 3 sites is around an hour's drive from home, they are not great, but I can do some imaging as long as it is in the 1/2 of the
sky in the opposite direction to the city centre
To really get out of the city sky glow, I need to travel up to 2 hrsDave