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Christmas Eve Iridium Flares
Carlos_dfc
Posts: 8,262 Forum Member
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Here's an idea for anyone with a child who still believes in Santa.....
Many satellites have reflective array panels which catch the sunlight and can appear to be VERY bright as seen from certain places down on the ground - they look like a bright, slowly-moving 'star' in the sky, and the Iridium satellites are particularly predictable.
On Christmas Eve, I like to find a bright one, and tell my nephew it is Santa setting off on his deliveries - very exciting for little kids.
Predictions can be got from this site.....
www.heavens-above.com
Enter your location as accurately as possible (Google Earth is good for this) because if you are as little as a mile or two 'off' it can make a big difference to the predicted position and brightness.
Brightnesses are rated by 'magnitude' - and the lower numbers are brighter.
For example:-
Mag 0 is the same as the brightest stars
Mag -4 (minus 4) is about the brightness of Venus at the moment
Mag -8 is very bright indeed (the full Moon is about -12)
But anything with a minus value will be bright enough for the purpose.
I've had a look, and from here, there's a -7 at 5:26pm, 25° up, to the SSW
That's the one I'll be pointing out to my nephew
Many satellites have reflective array panels which catch the sunlight and can appear to be VERY bright as seen from certain places down on the ground - they look like a bright, slowly-moving 'star' in the sky, and the Iridium satellites are particularly predictable.
On Christmas Eve, I like to find a bright one, and tell my nephew it is Santa setting off on his deliveries - very exciting for little kids.
Predictions can be got from this site.....
www.heavens-above.com
Enter your location as accurately as possible (Google Earth is good for this) because if you are as little as a mile or two 'off' it can make a big difference to the predicted position and brightness.
Brightnesses are rated by 'magnitude' - and the lower numbers are brighter.
For example:-
Mag 0 is the same as the brightest stars
Mag -4 (minus 4) is about the brightness of Venus at the moment
Mag -8 is very bright indeed (the full Moon is about -12)
But anything with a minus value will be bright enough for the purpose.
I've had a look, and from here, there's a -7 at 5:26pm, 25° up, to the SSW
That's the one I'll be pointing out to my nephew
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