Newbie

[kenny]

Hello, my first post.

My wife bought me a telescope back in Feb for my birthday and last night 12th Apr was the first decent clear night I've had to use it. Anyway, after looking at Saturn I looked up at the sky to get my bearings and was aware of a bright intense flash almost like a camera flash and thought it was way too bright for an aircraft strobe. Sure enough about 10secs later there was a second flash almost overhead. I'm guessing now that what I saw was an Iridium flash.

[ashenlight]

Hi Kenny,

I've only seen one iridium flare myself, but it sounds like one to me. Set up an account (it is free) on this website:

Heavens-Above Home Page

You can look up when iridium flares are going to occur, and also when sats and the ISS are going to pass over in view from your location.

Any problems just post and someone will be glad to help

Happy viewing,

Amanda

[Doc]

Hi and welcome to SGL

[Astro_Baby]

And hi from me too

[barkis]

Enjoy the SGL Forum Kenny.

If you require help or advice at anytime, please just ask.

It's a fountain of knowledge here.

Ron.

[Ant]

Hi Kenny,

Welcome to SGL.

Amanda's idea is an excellent one, heavens-above.com will also tell you the iridian flares in the last 24 hours.

So you can confirm what you saw!

Cheers

Ant

[Talitha]

Hi and welcome to SGL, Kenny... sounds like you were lucky enough to catch a few Iridium flares.

[DanDare]

Welcome from me too Kenny, you're one up on me as I've never seen an iridium flare - I keep meaning to catch one though.

The Heavens-Above web sight mentioned by Ashenlight is well worth a look.