Irridium Satellite flares

There are Irridium satellites i the sky orbiting the earth at the moment.

According to a German website Heavens Above these satellites are set at precise known angles to the earth, which means that if you input your geographical location it is possible to catch a "glint" of the solar panel of the spacecraft as it orbits above. These glints according to the website are very bright. The start and end positions are given.

I must admit I have not seen them yet as it is mosty too bloody cold to go out at the moment. Has anyone seen them?

I´ve been meaning to look at one, just to see what all the fuss is about. Kind of cool actually. Have not gotten around to it yet...am content with the occasional stray satellite.

If you check out that link it leads to the NASA websites where they document for civilians their unclassified satellites.

Interesting is that they like amateurs to exactly time and poistion their sats in order to measure what are called "perturbations" in the satellite track so it is quite useful science. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where ordinary people can contribute useful science.

I would imagine you´d need a very precise watch and a calibrated sextant! But then, they move pretty fast...don´t know how you would get scientifically accurate/useful info??

Er, how is a sextant helpful here?

Nope as I understand it you need a very good sky geography to accurately locate start end end points (which I do not have!) perhaps like knowledge of the location of the main stars in any constellation. Many of them have beautiful Arabic names (which I have to look up every time!)