Rare astronomy moment
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:40 pm
I was on holiday in Sardinia at my sister -in- laws holiday home recently. The house is built on a hillside and is about 100 metres above sea level, looking towards the border of Spain and France. Each evening we had a magnificent uninterrupted view of a glorious sunset. The house has a section ,that looks more like a pulpit , built out from the house and we would eat out there. We had a 180 degree view of the sky, from Polaris in the North to Jupiter in the South. On the evening of 14th Aug. our hosts told me that they could easily identify the plough but could I clarify which was the Pole star.
I mentioned that if we were lucky we just might see the ISS ( I had details of the times with me but did not let on ) and it would be somewhere close to the Pole star. Right on cue the ISS appears and all are really impressed. Then just a few degrees south of the ISS there is a brilliant flash and I hear shouts of what was something like Jaaaaaaayzus! in Italian. They were visibly excited at what they had just seen and eagerly asked could I explain?
I calmly told them that they had just observed an Iridium flare and that this was so called because there was to be 77 communications satellites launched and 77 happened to be the atomic no. for Iridium and the flash was sunlight reflecting from one of these satellites.
I had hardly made this explanation when a meteor streaked across the sky (probably a Perseid straggler) and a few more Italian expletives. This led to the explanation that we are all familiar with. Were they impressed or what?
p.s. We only had one bottle of wine between 4 of us -- honest!
Just one of those rare moments -- you could never plan it.
I mentioned that if we were lucky we just might see the ISS ( I had details of the times with me but did not let on ) and it would be somewhere close to the Pole star. Right on cue the ISS appears and all are really impressed. Then just a few degrees south of the ISS there is a brilliant flash and I hear shouts of what was something like Jaaaaaaayzus! in Italian. They were visibly excited at what they had just seen and eagerly asked could I explain?
I calmly told them that they had just observed an Iridium flare and that this was so called because there was to be 77 communications satellites launched and 77 happened to be the atomic no. for Iridium and the flash was sunlight reflecting from one of these satellites.
I had hardly made this explanation when a meteor streaked across the sky (probably a Perseid straggler) and a few more Italian expletives. This led to the explanation that we are all familiar with. Were they impressed or what?
p.s. We only had one bottle of wine between 4 of us -- honest!
Just one of those rare moments -- you could never plan it.