As Bjoern points out, the Iridiums can be in lower parking orbits and still flare. My suggestion was to look at the operational mean motion and assume that once achieved, flaring is very likely to be guaranteed. My first daylight Iridium flare was detected this weekend. Using 1:24,000 USGS maps and SKYSAT and IRIDFLAR in tandem, I found a place nearby where a near zero mirror angle was predicted for Oct. 25 at 23:22UTC. It had been totally cloudy all day and within 15 minutes of flare time the 3 layers of clouds broke in the area of a predicted flare for Iridium 13 (elevation 40, azimuth 207) with the sun 3 degrees above the horizon. I easily spotted the flare for 2 or 3 seconds as it was in a marginally clear spot between two banks of cirrus clouds. The sky clouded over within 20 minutes after the flare. No way to estimate brightness as there were no other objects visible, not even the sun. Paul D. Maley United Space Alliance DO5/Cargo Operations NASA Johnson Space Center Houston TX 77058 USA phone: 281-244-0208 email: paul.d.maley1@jsc.nasa.gov latitude 29.5378 north; longitude 95.0868 west; altitude 6 m