Hello there,

It was a clear and beautiful day today. Deep blue sky.

This night I watched for two flares, Iridium 72's one and Iridium 26's one.

72 were scheduled to pass just above Jupiter at 11h25 pm. My observation post were located at 200 meters of the flare center. estimated mag : minus six.

H-30 min : The sky is heavily cloudy, but I go on
H-15 min : Little breaks in the cloud, But I can't find Jupiter.
H-10 min : Wind start to clear the sky, I locate Jupiter.
H-5 min : Ursa major appears, I realize that I confused Jupiter with Spica (good job, a mistake of nearly 70°, next time, I would take my compass)
H-2 min : I locate Jupiter (at last) and quickly prepare my camera.

And then, a splendid 72 appears : Very beautiful pic : Jupiter and 72 between two trees. Five minutes later the sky was heavly cloudy again. Immediately after 72's passage, I shouted a deep big : PU-TAIN ! (for those who does not speak french, you can translate by FU-CK !). I didn' unlock the auto-focus. The camera was unable to focus and didn't took the photo.


26 were scheduled to pass just above Arcturus at 00h43 am. My observation post were located at 3 kilometers of the flare center. estimated mag : minus eight.

H-10 : The sky is clear and limpid.
H-8 : The sky is clear and limpid.
H-6 : The sky is clear and limpid.
H-4 : The sky is clear and limpid.
H-2 : The sky is clear and limpid.
H-0 : The sky is clouded, no star visible.
H+2 : The sky is clear and limpid.
H+4 : The sky is clear and limpid.
H+6 : The sky is clear and limpid.
H+8 : The sky is clear and limpid.
H+10 : The sky is clear and limpid.

All I saw is a vague gleam through the clouds


I was back home at 1h30 am and I was waiting for Iridium 59 and Iridium 91 which both passed around 2h20 am. A perfect sky, no clouds. 40 sec of exposure : I hit the camera.


It was a very bad night....