If you have a little time and internet access and are interested in things to look for in the L.A. night sky other than airplanes and the usual several bright stars and planets, check out http://www2.gsoc.dlr.de/scripts/satvis/satvis.asp?Lat=34.065009&Lng=-118.44258&Loc=UCLA&TZ=PST.

To get this web page you can also go to my personal home page (http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~agm/intro.html) scroll to the bottom, and click on the link under the 'links' list.

It's a web page run by GSOC (German space agency) which gives the satellite visibility for the L.A. area-- gives the locations of Mir (the Russian space station) and the brand new I.S.S. (Internat'l Space Stn.), and when they'll be visible from the lat. and long. of U.C.L.A.

It also gives the location for 'flares' from the Iridium Satellites. These satellites were launched in 1997-1998 as part of a network of 66 satellites designed to give cell phone coverage to every nook and cranny of the Earth. However, they were only able to get about 55,000 customers interested in the service ($3,000 per large, clunky phone and $7 per minute for a call) and have racked up $4 billion in debt, and as of March 2000, plan to shut down all operations. That involves burning up all the satellites in Earth's atmosphere over the next few years so they don't interfere with other orbiting satellites. These satellites are large and reflective, and near sunrise/sunset, they can reflect lots of sunlight back to Earth's surface in a concentrated beam. It's seen from one spot as a bright, intense point, barely moving, which lasts 5-10 seconds.

The apparent magnitude as seen from L.A. is given for all these sightings, and in L.A., you won't see anything fainter than apparent magnitude +0.5 or so. (Remember, brighter magnitudes have lower and negative numbers-- so a flare with app. magn. -1 is brighter than a +1 magn. flare.) (So just look for flares/sat. sightings with a magn. that is negative) For comparison, Jupiter's app. magn. is -2 or so, and Venus' apparent magnitude is usually around -3 or -4.

For the Iridium flares, (from that GSOC page, go to 'Iridium Flares: For the next 7 days' link) the location in the sky is given in azimuth/elevation

Ex: On Wed Jan 20, 1999, reflected sunlight from Iridium Sat. no. 55 was predicted to shine on West L.A. with an apparent magnitude of -4 (VERY bright) at 6:12:09 pm. (Note: predictions are good to within ~40 sec. Occasionally, a satellite's orbital trajectory will be altered, and the flare is 'rescheduled.')

The flare was in the sky at azimuth 183 degrees, elevation 31 degrees. To see a flare at that point in the sky, do the following: Face due south (S=180 deg. azim.), and turn to the right (SW) barely (3 deg. to face 183). Look in the lower part of the sky, 31 deg. above the horizon (about a third of the way up from the horizon to the zenith).

Hint-Your fist held at arm's length covers ~10 degrees. The moon is about half a degree in diameter. Same for the sun. 3 degrees is about one and a half knuckles at arm's length.

Hint--calibrate your watch to the exact time beforehand; e.g., if I'm at home, I'll turn on cable channel 44, the 'T.V. Guide' channel to get the exact time. I think the time according to them is pretty accurate, but I haven't verified that yet.

I'm trying to get in as many Mir sightings as I can since the Russian space agency's planning to end the Mir mission, probably within the next year. Other nations are pushing Russia to spend more resources and money on the International Space Station.

One additional note on the Iridium Flares: If you live more than about five to ten kilometers west or east of UCLA's longitude, you'll need to re-enter in your exact long. & latitude on the GSOC page--flares will seem dimmer or brighter depending on your precise location in the L.A. area. If you travel to another part of the country, you'll obviously need to re-enter your lat. & longitude, too.

--agm