Big Flash observed near big dipper @18:58CET

originally posted by: FireballStorm
4/ Once you get back in and you've off loaded the images to your hard drive, zoom into each image and check for trails

I just want to make a little correction to my post above, which has been bolded in the above quote, to highlight the offending part.

Not sure why I wrote that at the time (!?), but there is no need to zoom in, as long as you have a good monitor. I only zoom in once I spot something while zoomed out so that I can see the whole image.

I also wanted to add an actual example, so here is a 100% crop from an image with a junk/satellite glint/flash. The flash is just left of center in the image, and you'll also notice the faint trail the object left either side of the flash, although it fades quickly to the left of the flash.



It's worth noting how dim the trail is compared to the glint - although I did not see it at the time, the glint would have been easily visible to the naked eye, but the rest would have been much too faint to see, even under pristine skies/ideal conditions.

While the above image is of a fairly average junk (or satellite) glint, it's not the "mega-glint" which this thread is about, and each satellite/piece of junk will leave a slightly different trail in many cases. Some will gradually brighten/fade (AKA "flaring"), which is more an operational satellite characteristic, while junk tends to result in fast and random (or semi-random) glints at various points along it's trail since it is usually spinning quickly in multiple axis.

originally posted by: johndoehimself
I wonder how many of these flashes need to happen before normies take it seriously.

It is taken seriously, and some "normies" are definitely aware of the space-junk problem (mostly thanks to the movie "Gravity"). There are ongoing efforts to clear junk, and more importantly, work out the most efficient way/ways to do it, but I agree that it needs more serious effort.

Apparently there was a near miss between satellites in orbit (again) a week or two back (needs confirming). It might (just guessing here really) just take a few more "incidents" (where there is actual contact) to reach the critical mass at which there is a snowballing-runaway effect, where junk goes through the roof, and trying to launch anything through/to LEO becomes insanely risky. It could put an end to the space age as we know it, as well as throwing the globe in to chaos in general, due to our dependence on satellites. Not good. So people are trying to do something about it.