Does anything else flare like an Iridium?

Nick Budd (njb@pavilion.co.uk)
Mon, 29 Dec 1997 23:04:20 +0000

Flying across the Atlantic the other day, I saw two "flares". So convinced
was I that
they were Iridiums that I just made a mental note to check which two they
were.
However, when I came to run the prediction programs, I could not find any
candidates
to fit the criteria. Could it have been anything else? The details are as
follows:

Viewing location: 51.50N  42.67W
Date: 28 Dec 1997
Time: 0532UTC
Altitude: 36,000 ft

Elevation: approx 10
Azimuth: approx 060

Both flared to a mag of approx -5 within ten seconds of each other and
lasted 8-10 secs.

Nick