Another GREAT Iridium Flare

Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Mon, 06 Oct 1997 06:07:31

After the great Iridium flare of yeasterday (5 Oct) morning,
I decided I had to predict future ones since I had run out of
Rob Matson supplied predictions.   So I thought about it really
hard and decided that Iridium 4 (#24796) should flare on the
morning of 6 Oct around 5:46 AM local just east of Polaris.

I go out and sure enough, it flares.  This time I am calling it
magnitude -7 since it MAY have been brighter than the flare
yesterday.   The peak was a bit more distinct than every one 
before (max at 5:45:56 AM PDT local or 11:45:56 UT).

For folks who have not seen one of this magnitude, run this pass,
or the one from yesterday for my location (104.5614 W, 38.9478 N,
2073 m, UT-6) and find a similar pass for you.  It is a high
elevation, northbound pass, passing about 5 degrees east of
Polaris.

I cannot tell what differences in observer latitude will do for
seeing this flare.

Ron Lee

PS, I really did not predict it.  It was just a similar pass to the
one Rob predicted and it worked. Also the magnitude is not based on
comparison to nearby stars so there is an uncertainty in that value.