Last night I was taking picture of Milky Way and saw a short bright flash from a satellite in Pegasus. It was very bright (mag -4 or brighter) and brief (1 second or less). A faint satellite was visible for few tens of seconds moving South before fading away. The flare is well visible on my picture: http://www.taivaanvahti.fi/images/uploads/201509/42380_76835df6373c168436ce66da926b1be7.jpg The path matches well with Iridium 24, but there is no predicted flare and for a typical Iridium flare this was a very short duration. Also the flare was seen more than one minute before the satellite should have been at the flare point. The time was checked from a mobile phone with very accurate time. It was still 20:02 UT well after the flare. http://www.heavens-above.com/passdetails.aspx?lat=62.1259&lng=25.7019&loc=Muurame&alt=79&tz=EET&satid=25105&mjd=57275.8346988795&type=A Flare time: 2015-09-10T20:01 UT Observing site: Muurame, Finland (62.1259N, 25.7019E) Could Iridium 24 have been more than minute ahead of the prediction and why flaring unexpectedly? arto -- Arto Oksanen arto.oksanen_at_jklsirius.fi Muurame, Finland "In a world where I feel so small, I can't stop thinking big." _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Fri Sep 11 2015 - 04:49:03 UTC
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