http://www.calsky.com does list Iridium satellites which are "spare or status is unknown." As a matter of fact yesterday morning our time it listed consecutive flares from the "active" Iridium 40 and the "spare" Iridium 98 with less than one minute between flares. http://www.rod.sladen.org.uk/iridium.htm confirms 98 as a spare. Both satellites are in the same plane. Both were excellent flares, Calsky predicted that the second one would be brighter though it stated that brightness prediction may be unreliable. In fact 40 was brighter and visible for longer than 98. I would put 40 at close to or brighter than the predicted mag -4 , but 98 an order of magnitude or two dimmer. Robert Holdsworth Wainuiomata New Zealand 174.948E 41.261S ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Ashcraft" <ashcraft@heliotown.com> To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 6:45 AM Subject: Re: Question about Flashes not listed at Heavens-Above.com > Follow-up: > > The satellite has been identified as Iridium 17. > > Also, I learned that heavens-above.com only lists Iridiums that are in > control. This is very helpful information and I will pass this on to my > fellow meteor observers. > > Clear skies, > Thomas Ashcraft > > > > Thomas Ashcraft wrote: >> >> >> Some meteor observers, including myself, who operate all-sky cameras >> often get bright negative magnitude satellite-like flashes that are not >> listed at www.heavens-above.com. Am I right in assuming that >> heavens-above.com does not list all satellites that create negative >> magnitude flashes? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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