I think that Willie is thinking that if the plane of the flat solar panel is oriented at a right angle to the sun (for maximum absorption) that the light would be reflected directly back toward the sun; then nobody would see it except maybe during a total lunar eclipse. Can somebody clarify this? Tom Iowa ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Fetter" <kevin_fetter@hotmail.com> To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Sent: Friday, June 14, 2002 9:11 AM Subject: Re: Double flash from Iridium 65 I don't see why if the angles are right why you wouldn't get a reflection of light off the solar panels. During the equinox, the geo sats flare because because the solar panels reflect light towards us, due to the angles. People have seen the flare from the iss thanks to the solar panels. If you download rob matson's iridium flare program, you will see that it can predict flares from the solar panels on the iridium satellites :) http://users2.ev1.net/~mmccants/programs/flare221.zip So I am betting that what might have caused the second flare. Kevin ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/sat/seesat/seesatindex.html
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