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It's like someone using a mirror to reflect the sun at you - it can be quite bright if the angles line up correctly. It's called a satellite flare. Sadly, the best and most easily predictable ones, the Iridium Satellites have all been retired, so you can't easily observe one any more, but if you look on youtube, people have posted observations of them.

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Interesting. I found an old page with a photo and a newer one with more recent information. I knew that Iridium as a constellation is still operating, but I wasn't aware that they introduced a different satellite design that mitigates flares. The last Iridium satellite that produced flares was deorbited in 2019. (They folks who made the second page seem disappointed about the end of that era.)

http://www.satobs.org/iridium.html

https://catchtheiridium.com/mission/

In my experience catching a surprise iridium flare was rarer than catching a non-shower meteor. I think that I had seen maybe less than dozen my whole life of looking up.

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