![]() ![]() Foreground shows historic Kanapaha Presbyterian Church in Gainesville. Thank you, Simon! Iridium flare from Gainesville, Florida, predicted magnitude -8. Thanks, Mike! Iridium flare caught on December 9, 2012, by Simon Waldram, in Spain. Mike Taylor Photography called this image Nature & Man: Iridium Flare, Milky Way, Clouds and Light Pollution. Our thanks to all of you who contributed photos, a few of which are shown below. Over the years, the EarthSky community has caught many beautiful Iridium flares. Iridium Communications has set up a web page and hashtag called #flarewell to mark the end of Iridium flares.Īnother place to follow them is on Twitter.Īnother shot coming from Australia ? SV59 by Kerryn Murphy shooted last 30th December 2018 #catchtheiridium #iridiumflare #flarewell /z6Ws52lqSU Plus, some of the original 66 Iridium satellites are still up there (although, one by one, they’re being allowed to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere). Here is EarthSky’s meteor shower guide for 2019. As they are tumbling, they may be visible as a dim moving “star” that might produce bright flashes as the object reflects more sunlight.Īnd, of course, there are the more ordinary – but often very spectacular – flashes of shooting stars, or meteors. After launching a satellite, some rocket bodies may continue to orbit Earth for weeks, months or even years. Other objects that produce flashes in the sky include, for example, tumbling rocket bodies. You can still see flashes in the night sky. It's taken us 20 years to transform from caterpillar to butterfly, but we're looking to fully take flight on January 8th! Photograph by Flickr user ideonexus via Wikimedia Commons.Ī fitting image to end our Iridium NEXT launch campaign. One of the original Iridium satellites, donated to the Air and Space Museum. Some “collected” the flares, like birds or butterflies, and you can still find tracking information for the few remaining flaring satellites on websites such as. Over the years, they became the target of many astrophotographers and astronomers. The flares can be bright! They’ve been reported to be as bright as magnitude -8, which is brighter than Venus. They have three reflective panels that occasionally catch the sun and produce a visible flare lasting between five and 20 seconds. Missing them already? Here’s what iridium flares look like:Ī few of the original, sometimes-glinting Iridium satellites are still in low Earth orbit. Once complete, there will be a total of 75 new satellites deployed – 66 in the operational constellation and nine in-orbit spares. The final Iridium NEXT launch is targeted for January 8, 2019, at 7:48 a.m. The Iridium NEXT satellites are no doubt superior in many ways, but, sadly for amateur astronomers, they don’t produce the beloved flares.Īt this writing – Janu– Iridium Communications has now successfully launched 65 Iridium NEXT satellites into orbit with SpaceX from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The original 66 satellites have been phased out, and a second generation of satellites – called Iridium NEXT – is nearly entirely in place. However, as we go forward – although there are still a few of the original 66 satellites up there – Iridium flares are destined to become a thing of the past. You’ll see some of the brief glints of Iridium flares in photos captured by the EarthSky community, on the bottom of this page. Beginning in 1997, the company launched into orbit around Earth some 66 telecommunications satellites, which were know to flare briefly in the night sky as their solar panels caught the sun’s rays. People often ask us about flashes in the night sky, and – over the past 20 years – many of those flashes turned out to be flares from communications satellites put into orbit by the Iridium SSC company. Think I might stick around for this historic event at 15:31 UTC (7:31 pst) on 11 Jan! Weather in the morning doesn't look too bad right now, and the rocket should be ready. Iridium-8 update: briefing from SpaceX makes me increasingly encouraged about a Friday launch. We’ll try to keep you updated, or try Matt Desch ( on Twitter. #IRIDIUM FLARE UPDATE#UPDATE JANUARY 8, 2018: The launch of the final Iridium NEXT launch has been delayed. ![]()
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