Hello, I reported the same type of flare about a month ago on this service. It was located in the same area of sky. I was informed that iridium satellites are in low earth orbit and are apparently moving quickly across the sky. What I witnessed was stationary and apparently what Chris Anderson saw was also stationary. Robert W. Brown On Tue, 11 May 1999, Taichi Kato wrote: > (fwd) Re: [vsnet-chat 1870] (fwd) query from chris adamson > > Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 03:36:19 -0400 > From: Charles Scovil <cescovil@snet.net> > Subject: Re: [vsnet-chat 1870] (fwd) query from chris adamson > > > Forwarded query from Chris Adamson: > > > > From: "chris adamson" <adamsonfamily@home.com> > > Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 23:35:35 -0600 > > Subject: question > > > > Okay, believe it or not... > > About 10:45pm tonight 5/10/99 (USA Mountain Standard Time) I step > > outside to > > begin viewing through my binoculars, only out for a couple minutes, > > eyes > > nowhere near dark adapted. I look up at the Big Dipper, about a few > > degrees > > out from Alpha Ursea (Dubhe), 2-3 degrees heading towards Polaris, I > > see a > > very bright object (I would estimate -1 or so); stationary, bright and > > > > seemingly very out of place. In fact, it looked like Venus (in > > magnitude); > > but new though I am, I knew this would not be located there. As I > > looked > > and wondered for probably less than a minute (I had no idea how long > > it had > > been there), it began to dim and disappeared in a 10 second or so time > > > > frame. Note it did NOT move, it simply faded. Very strange. This was > > all > > with naked eye; as I had not actually taken my binoculars out of there > > case. > > I checked my star atlas and Burnham's and did not see any variables > > that > > would get nearly this bright. Any idea how to check up on these type > > of > > things (what could it have been) or who to report things to? I have > > only > > been at this for about 8 weeks, but I was not seeing things. Any > > other > > reports? Any ideas? > > Thanks, > > Chris Adamson > > This sounds like a slightly a-typical flare of one of the IRIDIUM > satellites. I have seen many of them. They range in brightness from > about 0 magnitude to minus 8!!! Now that is BRIGHT! It makes Venus > look dim. You can check on what to expect in any area of the world at > the URL: > gsoc.dlr.de/satvis > They have a list of some 1.5 million places on earth, or you can enter > your exact Lat & Long. > Charles Scovil, AAVSO >