No changes to the extremely bright Iridium flare predicted to occur Saturday evening (March 18th) for Lower Puna. The path of the flare heads north to south. It will be slightly west of Kaloli Point, pass through central HPP, then west of Pahoa and ultimately almost directly over Kalapana. The flare is predicted to start at 19:47:23 and in Kalapana five seconds later, so you can see how fast the center of the flare travels. The flare itself should be visible for just a few seconds but will be incredibly bright.
For those who want to be looking in the right place beforehand, the flare will occur when the satellite is in the SSE (azimuth 147 degrees) and at an elevation of 46 degrees, so halfway between the horizon and zenith. If you can locate Orion's belt, that points to Sirius, the brightest star in the night-time sky. Continue in the same direction for about the same distance, but then head a little higher in the sky, the flare will be seen there.
Sky track of the satellite and flare:
https://goo.gl/cbqf08
Ground track of the flare center (
not the ground track of the satellite):
https://goo.gl/OrcIMK
Note: the farther you are from the center of the flare, the fainter it will be, e.g., it won't be very spectacular in Mountain View or farther west than that.
