On Wednesday, October 17, 2018 at 6:41:32 PM UTC-6, Quadibloc wrote:
On Wednesday, October 17, 2018 at 2:17:04 PM UTC-6, Anders Eklöf wrote:

In what way is this contraption worse than one Iridium satellite?
And there are 88 of them, right?

Aside from Iridium satellites - and the ISS - being visible from the Earth, and
aside from them at least serving a useful purpose, the article gave the
impression that this proposed artistic project would be more *obviously* visible
from the Earth than anything existing other than the Moon.

I did not notice anything specific about its brightness, and I didn't think to
check and compare it to the brightness of satellites already out there.

Ah, it's a 30-metre diamond-shaped balloon, and it's as bright as the whole Big
Dipper.

And I see that this is less bright than an Iridium flare, which can be seen in
the daytime - it is the result of the antennas focusing multiple reflections on
the same spot on the Earth, so at least there is a low chance of one, it doesn't
happen merely because one of those satellites is visible in the sky.

And the ISS is certainly reflective and much larger than 30 metres.

John Savard