Bright IridiumFlare

astroron (Ron) · #1 18-04-2010, 06:30 PM

There was supposed to be a Mag-8 Iridium flair at 18:09:52 tonight, but it didn't turn up

I had the Camera set up and I could stars to about mag 4 and was looking in the right place, but Nothing, Zilch

"Not very happy Jan"

StephenM (Stephen) · #2 18-04-2010, 08:49 PM

That's happened to me before as well Ron. Perhaps there's some inaccuracy in their predictions? Annoying when you're all set up though!

Cheers,
Stephen

astroron (Ron) · #3 19-04-2010, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StephenM

That's happened to me before as well Ron. Perhaps there's some inaccuracy in their predictions? Annoying when you're all set up though!

Cheers,
Stephen

Yes Stephen, especially when it is minus eight

mozzie (Peter) · #4 19-04-2010, 05:28 PM

you probably missed it ron as you where on the phone to me!!!!!!!!!

well it was nice to here from you
cant wait to see you at astrofest

vespine · #5 06-05-2010, 11:17 AM

Usually the predictions are pretty spot on, are you sure you were logged in and had your location set correctly? Maybe your cookies got corrupted and heaven's above didn't log you in automatically or something? There's like a "default location" that the site uses if you aren't logged in, I think it might be 0,0,0 or something. The iridium flares only trace very narrow paths, roughly every 3km away from the centre you lose an order of magnitude. So for example if you put in "melbourne" but you really live in frankston, which is 30km away, you won't see the -9 flare predicted for Melbourne.

Sorry if you know all this and doublechecked it all..

[1ponders] (Paul) · #6 06-05-2010, 11:27 AM

I had one the same this morning Ron. -7, no show. Had the camera out ready to go, updated the lappy time online, check. Checked the direction (357deg pretty much dead north) and height (22 deg), all good. Nup, nada, nothing. Shame really, I missed the -6 yesterday morning (forgot to set the alarm

) and I've been looking forward to catching this one today for a few days now.

Oh well. Better luck next time

astroron (Ron) · #7 06-05-2010, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vespine

Usually the predictions are pretty spot on, are you sure you were logged in and had your location set correctly? Maybe your cookies got corrupted and heaven's above didn't log you in automatically or something? There's like a "default location" that the site uses if you aren't logged in, I think it might be 0,0,0 or something. The iridium flares only trace very narrow paths, roughly every 3km away from the centre you lose an order of magnitude. So for example if you put in "melbourne" but you really live in frankston, which is 30km away, you won't see the -9 flare predicted for Melbourne.

Sorry if you know all this and doublechecked it all..

Nope , I did have all the correct things ,even checked with Paul (1ponders ) who lives a few kilometers away in a straight line and he had the same flair but a little fainter, but he did not look for it

I think maybe Heavens Above goes a little COOkOO now and again.
I have noticed it doing the same thing with the HST and The ISS in the past

circumpolar (Matt) · #8 06-05-2010, 05:55 PM

Sometimes it just doesn't happen. It's happened to me many times.

I must say that I do an Iridium Flare about two - four times a week. Every week. I would say they don't happen about 5% of the time.

mozzie (Peter) · #9 06-05-2010, 06:46 PM

yes occasionally they miss gut its a fantastic site for there info and predictions of flares!!!!!!!! must be a powerful computer to work all this out around the world AMAZING

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #10 06-05-2010, 07:09 PM

They seem to have cancelled mine too. I looked up to double check the time and it wasn't listed.
I had a double flare for tomorrow evening, a -8 and a -6 just one minute apart. But it's not listed now either.

kinetic (Steve) · #11 06-05-2010, 08:22 PM

That weird quirk happened to me too Nettie a few nights back.
I was all set to record a pre-dawn -3mag event and just
minutes before the event I rechecked my time and elevation etc...
only to find it gone from the Heavens Above list for the next 24 hrs.
I refreshed, rechecked, checked my location etc...it was gone.

Still captured the event, it is in the terrestrial section.
As Ron says, it happens

Steve

ykchia (Chia) · #12 09-05-2010, 01:58 AM

Hi folks:

I normally use HA for a quick look for candidates and verify using offline TLEs downloaded from Mike Mccant's site. I ran Robert Matson skymap and make sure i got the fellow ( double confirmation).

Using this map i pointed my 25mm video lens and wait for the flare to framed in FOV. Here is a recent effort

Please see http://nightevents.blogspot.com/2010...my-window.html - you can find the video link there as well.

rgds
ykchia
Singapore
www.nightevents.blogspot.com