Help with Iridium Satellites needed please....

[Inmykombi]

Hi everyone.

I am hoping someone who knows when IRIDIUM satellites were visible last night from Eastern Australia in the Gosfrod area.

I saw 4 flashes in the sky which seemed to be stationary and lasting for about 2-5 seconds in duration. These flashes were brighter than Venus to ther naked eye and appeared in 4 different parts of the sky between about 8pm and 9pm EDST last night 17th Oct.
There positions if I remember correctly were 1st at approx. Nth west Near Ophiucus, 2nd .. Sth West near Tringulum Asutrale, 3rd... near Zenith then one at Nth East.

After these flashes, myself and an observing buddy saw what we thought was the space station crossing from South West to East Nth East around 8.45- 9.15 maybe. The pass was really really slow and the duration was about 2-3 mins. before fading in the shadow of the Earth. Maybe it was another quite sizeable satellite.

I checked on the NASA site and found no passes for the shuttle or ISS or anything else around these times.

If anyone can help with what these satellites were I would appreciate it very much.


Cheers.

Geoffro.

[ChrisM]

Geoffro,
Have a look at "Heavens Above" website and enter the lat/long for your location. I did that for Gosford and there was one very bright (mag -8) flare last night (see table below), but not quite at the time you stated (although not sure if DS has been accounted for properly). I don't use the HA site often, but I have found the satellite predictions to be excellent when I have.

Chris



Iridium Flares | Home (http://www.heavens-above.com/?lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10) | Prev. (http://www.heavens-above.com/iridium.asp?lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10&Date=40465.3683333333&Dur=2) | Next (http://www.heavens-above.com/iridium.asp?lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10&Date=40469.4516666667&Dur=2) | Help (http://www.heavens-above.com/iridiumhelp.asp?lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10) |
Clicking on the time of the flare will load another page with more details,
including a map showing the track of the flare along the ground, and the
location of the nearest point of maximum intensity.
Search Period Start: 19:50, Saturday, 16 October, 2010 Search Period End: 20:50, Monday, 18 October, 2010 Observer's Location: Gosford ( 33.3833°S, 151.3000°E) Local Time: Universal Coordinated Time -10 (GMT + 10:00)
DateLocal
TimeIntensity
( Mag (http://www.heavens-above.com/glossary.aspx?lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10&term=magnitude)) Alt. (http://www.heavens-above.com/glossary.aspx?lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10&term=altitude) Azimuth (http://www.heavens-above.com/glossary.aspx?lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10&term=azimuth) Distance to
flare centreIntensity at
flare centre
(Mag.)Satellite 16 Oct 19:12:35 (http://www.heavens-above.com/flaredetails.asp?SatID=25469&lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10&Date=40467.383738148&Mirror=1) -2 60° 57° (ENE) 19.6 km (W) -8 Iridium 80 (http://www.heavens-above.com/satinfo.aspx?SatID=25469&lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10) 17 Oct 19:06:31 (http://www.heavens-above.com/flaredetails.asp?SatID=25468&lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10&Date=40468.3795208044&Mirror=1) -8 60° 57° (ENE) 3.6 km (E) -8 Iridium 81 (http://www.heavens-above.com/satinfo.aspx?SatID=25468&lat=-33.38333&lng=151.3000&alt=0&loc=Gosford&TZ=UCTm10)

Developed and maintained by Chris Peat (Chris.Peat@heavens-above.com), Heavens-Above GmbH
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[Inmykombi]

Thanks very much for the reply Chris it is appreciated.

I think that Iridium 81 would account for one of the sightings but what baffles me is that the ones I saw appeared stationary as well.

Thx.

again.