I was up at 4am this morning for another attempt to view a -8 flare. There were quite a few stars and one big cloud. You guessed it... I missed the flare... again! .
This is the 4th big (-7/8) flare in a row I've missed due to the weather. Oh well, there's a -7 coming up next week...
I was up at Beaudesert at the weekend and there were a few good ones...but I didn't bother. The sky is clearer back in Melbourne! There appeared to be a lot of smoke around, and it was pretty cloudy both nights.
I saw that one listed Randall, I was awake until 1am this morning and I considered setting the alarm to get up and view that -8 mag event. The flare centre was 600m due west of me here, ie just a tad further up Beerburrum Street, near the park I guess. Luckily I figured the clouds looked horrible and left the alarm off.
Did you notice around 2 weeks ago there was a dual flare event predicted for us here? From memory -6 and -4 mags, only 20 seconds and 2 degrees apart in the SSW sky ... I watched, there was a tiny bit of thinly spread cloud near that area .. yep, you guessed it, neither flare was visible!
I was beginning to think that iridium flares were a hoax!
I used heavens-above and found there should be a -8 (iridium76) directly over my place at 04:23 this morning and there was. Pretty amazing even with a full moon.
I use Starry Night Pro and have assumed that it's satellite tracking would be accurate. Looking just now shows no iridum being visible from my location at the time I saw one.
Last edited by snowyskiesau; 11-10-2006 at 05:21 AM.
I was beginning to think that iridium flares were a hoax!
I used heavens-above and found there should be a -8 (iridium76) directly over my place at 04:23 this morning and there was. Pretty amazing even with a full moon.
I use Starry Night Pro and have assumed that it's satellite tracking would be accurate. Looking just now shows no iridum being visible from my location at the time I saw one.
Have you updated your comet, asteroid and satellite files from the SNP website recently? I think that the orbits of satellites are constantly being updated and its best to use the latest orbital elements.
Did you notice around 2 weeks ago there was a dual flare event predicted for us here? From memory -6 and -4 mags, only 20 seconds and 2 degrees apart in the SSW sky
Yep... that was miss number one and two! Oh well, at least I only had to go outside once to miss both of them .
Are the Iridium satellites still up there?
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weather. Oh well, there's a -7 coming up next week...
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