Matthew.Fawcett@eastriding.gov.uk wrote: I saw a flare, suggesting a pattern of > Iridium flares in the North, 5 minutes or so earlier each night. > Does this kind of pattern occur regularly or was it just a > co-incidence? I have not noticed exactly such a pattern, and I do not think that the Iridium sats are timed to pass the same spot at the same "solar time" each day, but sense that there is a definite pattern to where flares are most likely to be visible from any particular location. At my location, we have repeatedly observed early AM flares at approx 72 deg. SW, and several early evening flares at about 60 deg. SSE. Later in the evenings we get repeated flares at approximately 45 deg. ENE. Sometimes there are two flares in the same general area in the same evening, most often they are separated by a day or two. There seems to be an even larger pattern where the flares are predicted in the SSE (evening) over a week or so, then all of the bright flares seem to be happening in the SW (morning), etc., suggesting that the overlapping time cycles create "hot spots" where Sun angles and satellite traffic converge on a regular basis. I am certain that the fine folks who have figured out the flare predictions themselves could explain this better, but a pattern seems evident to me. -- Tom Troszak Asheville, NC, USA 35.601 N, -82.554 W mailto:tom@bullhammer.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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