Re: flashing star

 
From: "tony1kenobi tony1kenobi@PROTECTED [Abingdon Astronomical Society Mailing List]" <aasmail@PROTECTED>
Subject: Re: flashing star
In-Reply-To: Re: flashing star
Date: March 9th 2021
 

From: bobdryden@PROTECTED

OK, a bit late I know but I think I have solved the mystery of what this flashing star was.
I was out on Sunday evening at about 7.00pm just as it was getting dark.
I had opened the observatory and was having a cup of tea when I saw a very bright flash, around -1/-2 magnitude, around the cassiopeia/andromeda/perseus area.
It lasted about a second, if that.
While pondering what it was, a second flash occurred, equally bright, in roughly the same area, again very brief.
Then another, and another, and another - well over a dozen in the space of a few minutes or so. All in the same area, but not exactly in the same place.

By the time of my third flash I'd grabbed the binoculars and could see it was a flare off a satellite, catching the sun.
The satellites were about 6th magnitude outside of the flaring.
There were one after another of these satellites and each one was reflecting the sun at a certain point in its orbit.

There is only one suit of satellites that I can recall that are all in a similar orbit and that is our friend Elon Musks Spacelink satellites.
Although there were more satellite passes, the angle to the sun had changed (as the sun got further below the horizon) and the flaring stopped by about 7.10pm.

Bob

On 01-Mar-21 1:36 PM, trevorwilliampitt@PROTECTED trevorwilliampitt@PROTECTED [Abingdon Astronomical Society Mailing List] wrote:
 

From: trevorwilliampitt@PROTECTED

Knew I had seen a comment somewhere.

 “Iridium CEO boss Matt Desch also mentioned to us that “we have approval for up to 10 (original) satellites with lower fuel levels to take up to 25 years for reentry… so last (Iridium flare) in 2043?”

So they are still visible, just not predictable.

 

Trevor

From: aasmail@PROTECTED <aasmail@PROTECTED>
Sent: 01 March 2021 11:08
To: Abingdon Astronomical Society Mailing List <aasmail@PROTECTED>
Subject: RE: [aaslist] Sunspot

 

 

From: owenb1367@PROTECTED

Trevor there are no longer any Iridium satellites as they have all been deorbited,

 

Owen

 

From: aasmail@PROTECTED <aasmail@PROTECTED>
Sent: 01 March 2021 10:36
To: Abingdon Astronomical Society Mailing List <aasmail@PROTECTED>
Subject: RE: [aaslist] Sunspot

 

 

From: t.pitt@PROTECTED

Hi Tony

 

You are not spamming at all and the right place to ask such questions, though live replies are less likely to occur on this forum.

There are stationary satellites from our point of view – the Geosynchronous orbiters, but they are not visible in binoculars owing to their great distance and they don’t flash.

Are you sure it was not just a star twinkling or thin clouds passing giving a rise and fall in brightness?  The period does not agree with twinkling though.   

If it was not moving – it cannot have been a plane and they flash much more frequently.

Irridium satellites rise and fall in brightness around 5-10 seconds but only once and they are moving. 

How long did you view it as it’s a mystery to me?

 

Trevor

 

 

From: aasmail@PROTECTED <aasmail@PROTECTED>
Sent: 27 February 2021 21:53
To: Abingdon Astronomical Society Mailing List <aasmail@PROTECTED>
Subject: Re: [aaslist] Sunspot

 

 

From: tony1kenobi@PROTECTED

Hi,

 

Not sure if this is the right place for question, but, I was just looking at the Orion Nebula through my binoculars and up and to the left of it I noticed what looked like a star that flashed on and off, maybe every 15/20 seconds. It did not move much, if at all, but wonder if anyone knows what it was, maybe a stationary satellite or something like that?

 

Thanks Tony

and apologies in advance if I am spamming :-)

 

 

 

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

On Saturday, 27 February 2021 11:23, owenb1367@PROTECTED owenb1367@PROTECTED [Abingdon Astronomical Society Mailing List] <aasmail@PROTECTED> wrote:

 

 

 

From: owenb1367@PROTECTED

If you have a suitably filtered telescope there is a nice large sunspot group on the Sun at the moment. Unfortunately it is moving off the limb soon but might be worth watching over the next few days. There is not a lot of H-Alpha activity.

 

Owen


 

                                                           


 

                                                           


 

                                                           


 

                                                           

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