-Caveat Lector- "The brilliant flares -- which can last up to 20 seconds -- are caused by sunlight reflecting off one or more of the three flat-panel antennae attached to each of the 66 Iridium satellites." Iridium Upstages the Stars by Joanna Glasner 3:00 a.m. 19.Feb.99.PST -- More than 40 years ago, Americans squinted into the night sky to watch the faint glimmer of Sputnik track slowly overhead. Today's amateur astronomers don't need to look quite so hard to spot this year's model. "They can be bright enough that, for a moment, you can think that you're looking at a landing light head on," said Brian Hunter, an amateur astronomer and chemistry professor at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. The brilliant flares -- which can last up to 20 seconds -- are caused by sunlight reflecting off one or more of the three flat-panel antennae attached to each of the 66 Iridium satellites. When the sun hits an antennae at just the right angle, the flares can brighten to an intensity that outshines everything else in the night sky. Hunter may have been the first to identify one of the flashes as an Iridium satellite in August 1997. He had actually been trying to pinpoint an Iridium bird when he saw a very bright object in the sky and traced it back to the star grouping where the satellite was supposed to be. "I made the connection very quickly," he said. News spread, and soon sky watchers were swapping email accounts of their sightings. A few satellite watchers created programs and set up Web sites to predict the flares. Jeff Hunt has a few photographs of orbiting Iridiums casting a vaguely UFO- like flash across sky on pages he updates for the Visual Satellite Observers Home Page. When sunlight hitting the main antenna on a satellite bounces directly to an observer on Earth, Hunt says, the reflection can be 30 times brighter than Venus. Without the flare effect, Iridium satellites look like faint dots moving quickly across a backdrop of stars and planets. Occasionally other orbiting craft, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mir space station, and the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory also give off flares, said Ed Cannon, who runs a Web page for satellite observers from the University of Texas. It's rare, however, for anything up there to shine as brightly as the brightest Iridium flares, he said. But not everyone is tickled by Iridium's light show. Some astronomers say the flares can mar their ability to see other objects in space, particularly in time-exposure photographs. They see the lights as a kind of "space pollution." But the greater concern in the scientific community has nothing to do with the flares, said Travis Rector, a staff scientist as Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. Radio astronomers who use telescopes that track radio waves of objects in space have been more affected by interference from satellites, he said. Iridium has been working with a number of observatories and has reached agreements with some for minimizing interference. But with the number of orbiting networks on the rise, radio astronomers' troubles could worsen. Iridium is the first of several planned global satellite-communications networks. The system relies on a network of satellites that belt the planet 485 miles above the Earth. The networks will provide phone and other high- speed communications services. In the meantime, a number of other satellite networks, such as GlobalStar and Tachyon, are getting off the ground. And while satellite observers can look forward to a wealth of new floating objects, some astronomers are concerned about the threat of celestial pollution. "As space becomes more crowded, these satellites can just get in the way," Rector said. Related Wired Links: Iridium Posts Huge Loss 25.Jan.99 Iridium Beeps Around the World 17.Nov.98 Science Versus Cell Phones 26.Oct.98 Lost in Space 9.Sep.98 Satellite Failure: No Biggie 24.Jul.98 Iridium Pitchman 2.Jun.98 Copyright � 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Wingate California Director SKYWATCH INTERNATIONAL TODAY'S MP3: "I Wanna Watch the X-Files In The Rain", by DARKANGELES http://mp3.com/music/Rock/3690.html TODAY'S MIDI: http://www.anomalous-images.com/beethove.mid ANOMALOUS IMAGES AND UFO FILES http://www.anomalous-images.com DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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