Iridium flare?

Hello folks

I was out in the backyard last night Sep 26, aroundabout 21:15 and spotted a satellite in the northeast. It was moving westwards. Suddenly it brightened considerably (much brighter than Venus and blue/white in colour) and died down again. It continued on it's journey westwards until fading beyond naked eye visibility.

Did anyone else see this? Was it an Iridium satellite flair, or some other satellite?

James

From your description I'd be 99% sure it was an iridium flare. Since these events are very local I wouldn;t be surprised if no one else saw it.

Bart.

James,
it definitely sounds like an Iridium Flare alright. You know, what you saw in Dublin may not have been able to be spotted from, for example, Tullamore. You should try www.heavens-above.com and select your location, and see from the satellite listings if you can find out what it was.

Seanie.

James,

I doubt it was an Iridium flare since the Iridium satellites don't travel in a equatorial orbit. They travel in a polar orbit, i.e. North to South or South to North not East to West.

Also there are very few satellites that orbit the Earth in a retrograde orbit, so my guess is it would be one of those.

btw, how long did you have it in sight for?

Spaceboy

Thanks for the replies everybody.

What looked like a bright star just happened to catch my eye as it was moving. About two seconds later it brightened considerably and diminished to it's previous magnitude, in a continuous manner, lasting approximately one to two seconds. It was a distinctly blue/white flash, quite dramatic. I've never seen one before. It was certainly an interesting phenomenon to withness.

Any chance it could have been the ISS?

James

Any chance it could have been the ISS?

Don't think so james. The ISS's orbit in the past 2 weeks has broght it over Ireland, but during daylight hours. It cannot be seen again till October 7th in the early morning.

Seanie.