Re: Iridium flares from the moon.

Robert Knight (rknight@escape.com)
Mon, 20 Oct 1997 14:50:38 -0400

q:	"Is it possible to see flares from the Moon?"

A:	Theoretically, Iridium *glints* could be visible from the lunar
surface -- but only at or near the New Moon (or, selenologically
speaking, "Full Earth").

RK

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     | | | |         "The operating system IS the virus!"
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     | | | |                    Robert Knight
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RJ@RMATSC.RIEM.COM wrote:
> 
> Floyd Weaver said-
> 
>         >    Is it possible to see flares from the moon? My guess is that under the
>         > right conditions it should be naked eye visiblity, but I am no authority
>         > on the subject.
> 
>         Since the sun is 14 magnitudes brighter than the moon, my guess
> is that a lunar Iridium flare would be about 14 mags dimmer than a solar
> Iridium flare.  I'll leave the calculation to the student.
> 
>                         Randy