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If you're interested in everyday astronomy, you will love this! Just set your location and this widget shows you the next time an Iridium satellite flares above you! And it's visible to naked eye.
Conversion of Dashboard widget from http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/details.php?wid=1411 - all original code by zolchew
About Iridium flares - and get your co-ordinates here
By amenajari-interior , # Jan 13, 2010 2:17:35 PM
By Feminin , # Jan 12, 2010 1:54:58 PM
Eg 65d45'17" rounds to 65.75 degrees (since 45 minutes is 3/4 of a degree).
Also, degrees South or West are entered as negative degrees.
For your example of 20d55'20"N, 70d10'25"W comes out to 20.922 latitude, -70.171 longitude.
By acmetech , # Aug 2, 2008 3:43:13 AM
By lolemsanhdieu , # Jun 19, 2008 2:08:39 PM
When you're inputing your location, take the lat/lng of your location off Google Earth and type the degrees and minutes as decimals without converting.
ex. 20d55'20.05"N, 70d10'25.26" would convert to 20.55 and 70.10.
Altitude is also there too, just divide your altitude in feet by 3 to get metres.
By xydean , # Jan 12, 2008 6:11:43 PM
By johnnysaucepn , # Aug 20, 2007 5:08:44 PM
David S.
By davidrs7 , # Aug 11, 2007 1:34:12 AM
Just wondering what the difference is.
By rooty2tea , # May 24, 2007 4:11:04 AM
By the way. To those of you are looking for your locacation's coordinates, Google Earth is also an alternative. Find your house, garden or other preferred viewing site on Google Earth, place the mouse pointer over it, and note the coordinates shown at the bottom of the screen.
By KimGarsdal , # Mar 23, 2007 5:08:08 PM
Seriously. I check for Iridium flares all the time, and this is going to make it much easier.
EDIT: Hmmm....I'm very familiar with Heavens-Above, and according to their site, there are quite a few flares in the next 24 hours....none of which match what this widget says is the next flare. The widget says Iridium 41 on July 12 @ 7:41am, Heavens-Above says Iridium 41 isn't due until July 15 at 10:00pm.
How does the widget take into account N/S latitude and E/W longitude? I'm at 36.16N x 115.035W (Las Vegas NV). See if you can make the widget match Heavens-Above.
Thanks for working on this!
By Michaeldee , # Jul 11, 2006 11:47:26 PM
my PC which is only a 700mhz Dell with 512mb SDRAM. Thanks for a really useful widget.
By Shaolin12 , # Jul 10, 2006 2:45:26 PM
It's 23:52 at the moment I'm writing this. The widget shows the next flare at 23:16 so I thought I had the wrong time settings. I changed from GMT+2 to GMT+3 and the widget says 01:16 so I changed to GMT+1 and the widget is showing 23:16. GMT+0 and it shows 21:16. Very confusing. I reloaded the program and tried several times but it's always the same behavior.
By Katschunga , # Jul 3, 2006 11:59:34 PM
It would be nice to have a _list_ of upcoming flares, not only the next one.
Otherwise: good work.
By stullex , # Jun 29, 2006 10:11:10 PM
actually I set the magnitude limit to zero for my city's condition. Human eyes can reach up to 6.5 under *ideal* conditions but it's obviously unrealistic for an Ir-flare observer
By cz_ma , # Jun 23, 2006 8:13:54 PM
By cz_ma , # Jun 23, 2006 8:04:16 PM
By ankitunlimited , # Jun 21, 2006 11:10:23 AM
By cortexbomber , # Jun 21, 2006 2:00:56 AM
By maels1 , # Jun 20, 2006 10:44:12 PM
What is the convention for E/W: East = negative West=positive? Or the other way around?
Similarly: North=positive, South=negative? Or the other way around?
There seems enough room for a list/table of the next 5 (or more) flashes.
And pin the 'i' icon down!
By kijang , # Jun 20, 2006 3:38:10 PM
By Lunkwill , # Jun 17, 2006 1:07:11 PM