I've just seen another Fireball?
 

On the night of the last good aurora i saw a fireball in the sky and so did
a chap in Aviemore - i reported it.

About 30 mins ago, again in the twighlight, i was walking down the garden
looking at the only star that was out, which was very bright and high in the
sky. As i was thinking "is this the Pole star or Mars, no it cant be Mars as
that is reddish" the star wained and went out, leaving a tiny trail?

It did not move up down or sideways it just went out - what was all that
about?

Did anyone else in Scotland see this or am I going mad in my little wooden
office (currently 10 C and outside currently -2 C)?

Please help

brian
aberfeldy

I've just seen another Fireball?
 

It did not move up down or sideways it just went out - what was all that
about?

Did you make a note of the exact time that your saw it?
It could have been whats called an "Iridium Flare"

An Iridium Flare is a rotating satellite with large solar panels. You may have been at the precise
point and at the precise time when the solar-panels of the satellite are in an orientation where it
reflects the sun's light on your location.

Its just like when you were a child and you used a mirror to reflect the light from the sun to
somebody else's eyes!
Oh No. I NEVER did that ;-)

Visit http://www.heavens-above.com/ and enter you location and see if an iridium flare was visible
at your location and at the time you saw it.


Brendan

I've just seen another Fireball?
 

I think that that is exactly what I saw - many thanks

brian


"Brendan DJ Murphy" wrote in message
...
It did not move up down or sideways it just went out - what was all that
about?

Did you make a note of the exact time that your saw it?
It could have been whats called an "Iridium Flare"

An Iridium Flare is a rotating satellite with large solar panels. You
may have been at the precise
point and at the precise time when the solar-panels of the satellite are
in an orientation where it
reflects the sun's light on your location.

Its just like when you were a child and you used a mirror to reflect the
light from the sun to
somebody else's eyes!
Oh No. I NEVER did that ;-)

Visit http://www.heavens-above.com/ and enter you location and see if an
iridium flare was visible
at your location and at the time you saw it.


Brendan

I've just seen another Fireball?
 

Did you make a note of the exact time that your saw it?
It could have been whats called an "Iridium Flare"

You can set your watch by them. I checked one tonight at 1724:59 GMT on the
dot as predicted.

Jack

I've just seen another Fireball?
 

You can set your watch by them. I checked one tonight at 1724:59 GMT on the
dot as predicted.

That "Heavens Above" website is amazing! I often use it to see when the International Space Station
is passing overhead.
It can be as bright as the planet Venus!

Brendan

I've just seen another Fireball?
 

On Sun, 7 Dec 2003 17:36:17 -0000, Brendan DJ Murphy wrote:

Did you make a note of the exact time that your saw it?
It could have been whats called an "Iridium Flare"

An Iridium Flare is a rotating satellite with large solar panels.

I didn't think Iridium sats rotated well not like some do but
maintained a fixed attitude relative to the ground and it was this
that enabled the prediction of the "flares" to be very accurate.

An iridium flare doesn't last long maybe 5 or 10s at most and aren't
that long in the sky, two or three fingers width at arms length. I'd
expect a fireball to be have amuch longer track length.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

I've just seen another Fireball?
 

"Dave Liquorice" wrote

An Iridium Flare is a rotating satellite with large solar panels.

I didn't think Iridium sats rotated well not like some do but
maintained a fixed attitude relative to the ground and it was this
that enabled the prediction of the "flares" to be very accurate.

The DO rotate - about once every 1 hr 42 mins (= one orbit round earth)

Didn't I enjoy being such a pedant!

Jack

I've just seen another Fireball?
 

Yn erthygl , sgrifennodd
Brendan DJ Murphy :
Visit http://www.heavens-above.com/ and enter you location and see if an iridium flare was visible
at your location and at the time you saw it.

Fantastic! I just saw my first iridium flare. Put in my data to this
site and it told me there was one within an hour at mag. -7.0.
With clear skies, at 17:28:22 last night, sure enough, there it was.

Amazing. Thanks for alerting me to this site.

Adrian

--
Adrian Shaw ais@
Adran Cyfrifiadureg, Prifysgol Cymru, aber.
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Cymru ac.
http://users.aber.ac.uk/ais uk