Iridium Flares

Many people have never heard of  ”Iridium Flares” let alone seen one. These momen­tary flashes in the night sky seem almost mys­tical. Of course, they are simply sun­light reflecting off the solar panels of Iridium satel­lites. There are 66 of these now active in low orbit forming the back­bone of a system facil­i­tating Sat Phone com­mu­ni­ca­tions world­wide. The name “Iridium” came from the orig­i­nally planned 77 satel­lites’ like­ness to the 77 elec­trons of an iridium atom. Impress your unini­ti­ated friends and family by pre­dicting exactly where and when a “star” will appear and then dis­ap­pear by entering your loca­tion on the excel­lent Heavens Above web­site (where you can also find the exact loca­tion of other satel­lites and the International Space Station). Be sure to be as exact as pos­sible when spec­i­fying your loca­tion as the spot of sun­light reflected down to the Earth only covers about 2 kilo­me­ters. As an example, follow this link for the flares over Salt Lake City, Utah for the next week. Look for lower-numbered mag­ni­tudes (bright­nesses) as the lower the number the brighter the flare. Some of these can be quite bright indeed, –8s and –9s are not uncommon — which you can see through light cloud cover as por­trayed in the video above.