Flares

Many times over the past 20 years, I’ve made it a point to go out and look up at the night sky searching for flashes of light — manmade shooting stars.  Many of those flashes are “flares” from communications satellites put into orbit by the Iridium SSC company. Beginning in 1997, the company launched into orbit around Earth some 66 telecommunications satellites, which are known to flare briefly in the night sky as their solar panels caught the sun’s rays.

They used to be a random surprise, but thanks to multiple websites, you can actually enter your location and receive a full list of tracking information.  That way, we know exactly where in the sky to look and the exact time to see them.  Awesome experience. 

Imagine my disappointment the other day when my older brother emailed me the following information:

Although there are still a few of the original 66 satellites up there – Iridium flares are destined to become a thing of the past. The original 66 satellites have been phased out, and a second generation of satellites – called Iridium NEXT – is nearly entirely in place. The Iridium NEXT satellites are no doubt superior in many ways, but, sadly for amateur astronomers, they don’t produce the beloved flares.

Fortunately, a few of the original, sometimes-glinting Iridium satellites are still in low Earth orbit. They have three reflective panels that occasionally catch the sun and produce a visible flare lasting between five and 20 seconds.

So, one of my 2019 goals is to get out more and observe the few remaining Iridium “flares” in the night sky.  Hope you do the same before they’re gone.  Enjoy your search.

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn