# Saw my first Iridium flare!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-iridium-flare/65386>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 14, 2001, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-iridium-flare/65386 "2001-05-14T04:24:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-iridium-flare/65386/1 "2001-05-14T04:24:38Z")

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It was exactly when and where it was predicted to appear by [http://www.heavens-above.com/](http://www.heavens-above.com/) ! Woo hoo!

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**Author:** ![Erroneous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71c47a/32.png) [@Erroneous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erroneous)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-iridium-flare/65386/2 "2001-05-14T12:29:45Z")

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That’s a groovy site. Thanks to it, I’ve seen all sorts of cool stuff in the night sky. Saw a magnitude -8 flare just the other night…that’s supposedly about 30 times brighter than Venus. The lights from the city are a bit annoying, though - anything dimmer than +1 is pretty much out of the question for me.

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**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-iridium-flare/65386/3 "2001-05-14T13:31:17Z")

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Thats a favorite past time of mine. Congrats!

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**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-iridium-flare/65386/4 "2001-05-14T13:50:45Z")

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I saw one 2 summers ago, and it really weirded me out for a few hours!

I was sitting in the back yard of a really rural Wyoming home, smoking the first (illegal substance reference deleted here) that I had had in 2 years. I finished, sighed, and leaned back to enjoy the view of non-light-polluted stars. I gazed for a few minutes when suddenly there was a point-source **FLASH**!

I couldn’t figure out what the hell that might have been: hallucination? UFO? Meteor headed DIRECTLY toward me?

Bugged me all night, until I had a sudden thought: ‘Iridium flare?’

Got on the internet the next morning, and verified it! Really cool! 🆒

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**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2001, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-my-first-iridium-flare/65386/5 "2001-05-16T00:59:28Z")

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I went to the website and found out when the next iridium flare was. I was very impressed, it was very cool. I know feel as though I need show people this.