ISS, Tiangong, Satellites Over Puna

[TomK]

There will be an extremely bright Iridium flare visible from much of lower Puna tomorrow (Saturday, April 1st at 18:40:15). These flares only last a few seconds, so you need to be looking in the right place at the right time. The center of the flare path will be just west of Kaloli Pt., will travel through central HPP, just west of Pahoa and then pretty much directly through Kalapana.

It will be visible (assuming clear skies) almost due south and at an elevation of 63 degrees above the horizon. It will occur very close to Sirius, but the sky will be very bright and am not sure the star will be visible that early in the evening. The flare's magnitude will be -8.3 (near the center of its path) which means it'll be roughly 30-40 times brighter than Venus at its brightest.

There will be an equally bright flare next Friday (7th April) although this one will occur later in the evening (just before 8 pm), so the sky will be dark. Details next week.

Edited for clarification.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Thanks Tom, I've set my alarm. Let's hope the generally clear skies we've had recently hold for yet another day.

You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.

[TomK]

HOTPE - if you're a very early riser, there's another bright flare at 04:38:42 this Sunday morning which should be visible here. Almost directly north and just above the horizon. I doubt I'll be looking for it though...

[PaulW]

Looking promising for 6:40pm tonight...

[TomK]

One cloud, just one stupid cloud, right at the spot where the flare occurred. Oh well, there's always next week...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

One more minute and a large clear patch would have arrived in that part of the sky...
Well, the moon was nice this evening.

You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.

[TomK]

If only we had this system over here, the flare would have been easily visible.

https://youtu.be/QAwL0O5nXe0

[TomK]

Right, let's try again.

Friday evening, April 7th at 19:58:28 there will be another extremely bright Iridium flare (mag -8.3) lasting for a few seconds. Assuming clear skies, it will be easily visible from HPP, Pahoa and Kalapana. The location is easy. The direction is SE at an elevation of 49 degrees above the horizon. This places it just a few degrees below the moon. Although it'll be close to the moon, it'll be so bright it should be simple to spot.

[PaulW]

On cue, here come the clouds.

[Jeremy Lutes]

Woot! Just saw it from Pahoa Village. Thanks for the heads-up, our first time seeing on of these. Pretty neat.