SergioC
Iridium 76 flaring in the sky
An Iridium flare. Luckly this one passed in Ursa Minor
Here is an annotated version.
The thick track is the Sun reflecting onto an Iridium satellite antenna. Each Iridium has three big antennas which are almost specular.
Iridium's orbit is tightly controlled and it is possible to predict when and where they passes over our heads and when the satellite is in sunlight and where the reflected beam reach ground.
A web site is avaiable to predict Iridium flares in any world location. You must enter your coordinates with 4 decimals at least because an iriudium flare has only a 7km diameter.
Predictions have subsecond precision!!!
I was used to stun my friends and collegues callin'em out, start count down, point a finger toward the sky, and... "WHOOA", "WTH", "What is that?", "How do you know", "that's incredible"
total funny :)
If you took Iridium flare photos please post them to Iridium Flares group
Iridium 76 flaring in the sky
An Iridium flare. Luckly this one passed in Ursa Minor
Here is an annotated version.
The thick track is the Sun reflecting onto an Iridium satellite antenna. Each Iridium has three big antennas which are almost specular.
Iridium's orbit is tightly controlled and it is possible to predict when and where they passes over our heads and when the satellite is in sunlight and where the reflected beam reach ground.
A web site is avaiable to predict Iridium flares in any world location. You must enter your coordinates with 4 decimals at least because an iriudium flare has only a 7km diameter.
Predictions have subsecond precision!!!
I was used to stun my friends and collegues callin'em out, start count down, point a finger toward the sky, and... "WHOOA", "WTH", "What is that?", "How do you know", "that's incredible"
total funny :)
If you took Iridium flare photos please post them to Iridium Flares group