Mark,
> Looks like here in So Cal we're headed for sets of 3 Iridium flares,
> 10-20 deg high in the SW to W, each flare about 8.8 minutes after the
> last one. It may be hard to see the fainter ones in murk.
Here in Athens I have the pleasure of the triple flares for six
consecutive days starting on June 17 and ending on June 22. Nice
oportunity to fill in the "gaps" for any Iridium-specific flares not
observed or imaged.
> In some of the series, the Iridiums even flare in numeric order! E.g.
> tonight Iridium 29,30,31: Thursday Iridium 28,29,30. (Presumably
> because
> they're next to each other on the same orbital plane.)
Same observation here as I have Iridiums 31, 32, 33 on June 17;
Iridiums 57, 58, 59 on June 18; Iridiums 30, 31 and 32 on June 20.
This six-day period of triple flares is then followed by lots of
double-flare opportunities.
Being new to Iridium flares, I wonder if certain parts of the year
are better than others for frequency of flaring and/or lower/higher
flare magnitudes. As far as the frequency goes, I would think not (?)
since flares are most often observed following sunset and before
sunrise. However, it is interesting to see how the flare azimuth during
the course of the year keeps moving in a steady direction and pace.
I would be interested to hear from the local experts if the flare
magnitudes are generally correlated with the time of year?!
> Mark
Anthony.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jun 11 2001 - 14:25:23 PDT