The sky at night (meteors, Iridium flares, the moon)

[dumbo]

DID ANYBODY SEE ANYTHING?

 

[Pooks]

I saw some clouds.

[Twerto]

I saw the back of my eyelids

[Colin]

If anyone's still interested, there are 5 good ones visible tonight. Clear skies should make them highly visible.

 

Best 2 are very close together about 1:15 am and reach Mag -9 & -8

 

Check http://www.heavens-above.com for details

[Skyumpi]

Ooooh! Didn't know about this. Perhaps it explains the "UFO" I saw a few years ago.

 

Looking at the Heavens Above website, does this mean that these will be visible at an elevation of 25 degrees above the horizons to the NNE?

[Colin]

Looking at the Heavens Above website, does this mean that these will be visible at an elevation of 25 degrees above the horizons to the NNE?

 

Not necessarily..

Iridium satellites are in polar orbits and are always heading towards or away from the poles.

 

Another thing to be aware of is that the path of the visible flare is NOT directly below the path of the satellite.

 

The two bright ones visible after 1am this morning will pass a little to the west of Shetland and will appear from the SSW direction heading North. (0deg = N, 180deg = S, working clockwise)

 

The flare itself is only visible for a few seconds when the satellite is almost directly overhead but can be quite stunning.

 

Iridium 95 is predicted to flare at an altitude of 64 deg and Iridium 58 at 63 deg. Both these positions are quite 'high' in the sky (don't forget that we are at 60 deg N) and will appear to be almost overhead.

 

Hope this helps but, best advice is to get out there and take a look and, whatever else, don't take your eyes off the sky. I've done this once or twice and missed the show.

[Njugle]

I'm confused - the details i was looking at said there were none more between today and tomorrow and the last one was hours ago.

 

edit i'll take your word for it Colin, thanks.

 

 

@khitajrah - i've used the aurorawatch text service for years and it's been pretty lacking this year, there have been some good displays but none of them have triggered the Aberdeen detector enough for an alert. Two years ago it was going off regularly day and night and that was before they adopted the Aberdeen detector, the previous one was in Lancaster. There are other forecasting sites if you are interested.

[Colin]

edit i'll take your word for it Colin, thanks.

 

That's good cos I saw them both

 

Anyone else see them? Pretty much the brightest I've seen for a while.

[shetlandcars]

I saw one at 1:15am on the westside heading north quite quickly, so i presume this to be it.

 

for those that missed it, you didn't miss much...

[Colin]

I saw one at 1:15am on the westside heading north quite quickly, so i presume this to be it.

 

for those that missed it, you didn't miss much...

 

About the right time. Presumably you just saw the satellite pass over and not the flare it creates (only lasts a second or two).

There was a second one about 4 minutes later on almost exactly the same track.

 

PS;

The 'flare' track is pretty narrow so, if you are not in the best place, it isn't going to be so impressive.

[Njugle]

Anyone else see them? Pretty much the brightest I've seen for a while.

 

I did! I clocked one at 1.17 and the next at 1.20* and i'd have to say i was impressed, genuine wow factor. I've seen satellites pass over before but the flares from those were pretty bright from where i was looking. Thanks Colin.

 

edit - *just east of the plough, directly overhead.

[Skyumpi]

Hmmph.

 

Turned sleepy at midnight and had to head for ba-baas so missed the whole thing by an hour or so.

I always try a bit of satellite spotting when out at night but didn't know about these iridium flares. I managed to see a triple convergence once a few years ago when three satellites passed through the same point in the sky at the same time - very spooky to watch.

 

Keep the tips coming Colin and maybe I'll see one of these flares yet.

[Colin]

Keep the tips coming Colin and maybe I'll see one of these flares yet.

 

Just do what I do. If the sky looks like being reasonably clear, get along to

www.heavens-above.com and check to see what's due.

 

FWIW;

These flares are also visible in daylight (if you know where to look) and last nights two very bright ones would have been an easy 'spot'

[Colin]

genuine wow factor.

 

All time best I've seen was a mag -9 on a cold, dark (no moon), clear winter night.

 

edit - *just east of the plough, directly overhead.

 

Yep, seemed to cross (after flaring) almost right in front of the Pole Star.

 

One of these nights I will get organised enough to set up a camera.

 

Note;

 

There is a mag-6 (from Scalloway, brighter(?poss - from Lerwick) flare visible tonight at around 23:46pm.

Get to a dark location for best effect.

[Colin]

-8 flare visible from Scalloway tonight at about 23:35 - 23:40

 

Fairly high in the West at 42deg

 

Look for clear sky.

 

Check www.heavens-above.com for details in your location.