Possible (Erroneous) Source For UFO Reports
Not a UFO, but an incredible simulation
With a little research, you can go out on almost any day near twilight and bamboozle your friends by predicting UFO sightings. They won’t be unidentified to you, though.
The discussion in another post about “green fireballs” reminded me of a heavenly display which is entirely predictable and might account for at least some UFO reports, even though I haven’t seen it mentioned in the literature.
The reflected glare of an iridium communications satellite can be a spectacular sight for those who are not familiar with them. Occasionally, they can be seen in broad daylight, but the most spectacular events are during twilight, when the satellite’s small but highly reflective flat antenna bounces the sun’s light back to Earth. The ones I have witnessed appear as a sliver of light, or more precisely, like a meteor in slow motion. A complete explanation of the phenomenon can be found here.
A site called Heavens Above will tell you exactly where and when to look for iridium flares. All you need to do is follow the instructions for a list of flare predictions for your local area. Click on select local location for anonymous users. The site even tells you how bright the flare will be, according to the standard measurement for astronomical objects.
If you have a watch or clock which is accurate, you can count down the seconds to your next “UFO sighting.”
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Aug 24 2007 
August 24th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Hi Greg,
Managed to see one about 8 years back - very impressive, it was around -6 magnitude or so.
On that topic, I had a UFO experience of my own a few weeks back, which I initially thought was an iridium satellite. On further investigation though, I’m not so sure. I blogged it at TDG:
http://dailygrail.com/node/5089
Kind regards,
Greg
August 29th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
re Iridium satellites- did you catch the ‘5 streaks photo’ at NASA’s Astronomy pic of the day?
Quite a discussion over this-satellites seems likely but then….
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070815.html
the photo
the discussion
http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/viewtopic.php?p=87509
http://www.cloudbait.com/
C. Peterson’s website
final quote from Peterson:
“Nope, there were no flares, nor even more than one Iridium satellite in the field at the times the images were made….”