I knew there were doubles up there (usually one out of commission), but
what really surprised me was that BOTH were mag -8 flares less than a
minute apart.

Thanks for the neat photo!

macnmotion wrote:
Yes, this happens. Some travel a distance behind each other, some closer
than that. I happened to catch a "trailer" when photographing this -4
flare last week:

Here's the wide angle:
http://www.macnmotion.com/iridium/iriddouble.jpg

Here's a closeup with the second satellite visible (confirmed as two
satellites in Starry Night):
http://www.macnmotion.com/iridium/iriddoublecloseup.jpg

By the way, the other Iridium satellite you saw was Iridium 77.

macnmotion

wrote:
I had a curious experience a couple of weeks ago. The Heavens Above
website had predicted a mag -8 Iridium flare at my home. We had guests
over for the evening, so I took them out to see the show. The flare
appeared right on cue and was intensely bright. As I was explaining what
they had just seen, a second equally intense flare appeared in the exact
same spot less than a minute later. Are some of the satellites operating
in pairs? I would have expected any defunct ones to be tumbling, or at
least not nearly as bright. These two were obviously in very close orbit
and alignment.

Specifics: 40.8077N, 89.6089W, Feb 14, 19:06:45CST Iridium 43 (no idea
what the other one was, not mentioned in the prediction table)

Bryan (drop the X if you e-mail me)