Iridium sky position and flare predictability

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	I'm sure others have noticed this but I don't recall anyone
posting anything about it.  I have found that by just scanning a
list of upcoming visible Iridium passes, I can generally pick out the
passes that will produce bright flares.  For me, the morning S-->N passes
that pass 0-10 deg east of Polaris and the evening N-->S passes that pass
a little east of south (Jupiter provides a nice reference at present) will
flare centered around 35-40 deg elevation.  I don't know if this
rule-of-thumb accounts for all the non-daylight passes I could see, but
the ones I have seen all fit this pattern.


Robert Fenske, Jr.   rfenske@swri.edu    Sw     |The Taming the C*sm*s series:
Southwest Research Institute            /R---\  |
Signal Exploitation & Geolocation Div  | I    | |"The Martian canals were the
San Antonio,Texas USA  ph:210-522-3931  \----/  | Martians' last ditch effort."

• Next message: Kurt Jonckheere: "Re:acceleration of 91-19 B = 21153 and 93- 36 B = 22676 ?"
• Previous message: Leo Barhorst: "obs 971030"
• In reply to: Philip Chien: "IMPORANT request about Iridium"