04-07-2017, 04:43 PM
Saw it as well, really nice. I'm glad others got to see it as well, especially those for which it was the first time!
HOTPE, that's a good question, and have to say, I don't know. In theory, it depends if the satellite is brighter than magnitude ~6 which is the faintest we can see on a dark night. If it were that faint, or even a magnitude or two brighter, you would need a dark sky to see it and would need to be looking in the exact spot to stand a chance.
I'll try and do a little research and find out how bright these things are when their panels aren't directing sunlight at us but are still out of the Earth's shadow. Thanks, great question!
From wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iridi...opeia.webm
HOTPE, that's a good question, and have to say, I don't know. In theory, it depends if the satellite is brighter than magnitude ~6 which is the faintest we can see on a dark night. If it were that faint, or even a magnitude or two brighter, you would need a dark sky to see it and would need to be looking in the exact spot to stand a chance.
I'll try and do a little research and find out how bright these things are when their panels aren't directing sunlight at us but are still out of the Earth's shadow. Thanks, great question!
From wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iridi...opeia.webm