Strange sattelite

Hope I'm in the right place with this question.
I tried to set up my scope before the fog rolled in again, but failed to do so again seems to be the same thing every evening now, just as I'm alligned, in it comes :evil:
anyway, I digress. I looked up and saw a sattelite zooming along at mega-miles-per-hour, so watched it for a moment, then all of a sudden it flared into what I can only describe as a very large fireball for about 2 seconds, then slowly dimmed back to it's faint star-like magnitude over the course of about another 1 second and carried on it's way. This was at about 9.30 pm or there-abouts. Anyone know why, was it doing something, or was it the last vestiges of sunlight catching it? The sudden flare into fireball proportions was sudden, but the dimming was slow.
Bill H.

You caught your self an Iridium flare!

They are very spectacular and are caused by the statelites in the Iridum fleet which have a very reflective antena underneath and hence they appear to flare up for the few seconds that that antena is directly aligend to point the reflection of the sun straight at you!

You can get predictions from www.heavens-above.com

Bart.

I saw a magnitude -8 Iridium flare the other night!!

Heres a tip. Get the timings from heavens-above as Bart suggests and then set up alarm reminders in your mobile phone so you dont miss them (the really bright ones anyway). To get exact predictions from heavens above you need your exact latitude and longitude. Get them from here;

www.maporama.com/share/

:shock: Thanks guys. I had heard of iridium flares, but was never sure what they were or what to look for. It was very spectacular and definately jaw-dropping. I sure will look for them again.
Thanks a lot for that and the links.
Bill H.

To get exact predictions from heavens above you need your exact latitude and longitude. Get them from here;
www.maporama.com/share/

As Dave says you need to be exact, to within about a kilometer. If maporama doesnt have detail for your location but you have an OS Map and have the grid-ref for you location you can get the lat/long from www.cademuir.net/geocaching.php

Cheers,
~Al

Thanks again.
Ooh I just luv you guys :lol: