Meanwhile on FACEBOOK… WE ASKED: Iridium flares are soon to be no more (see p74). Will you miss them?

David Gosnell They’ve been a handy party trick once or twice. Will miss them.

Stuart Atkinson I’ll really miss them. It’s been great fun watching them, planning where to look for them, trying to get photos of them. Very frustrating too, when an exposure ended just before the flare appeared, but I’ve never grown bored of them, and they’re great for showing non-astronomers during public outreach events too. Kelvin Ong Whenever I head north to my neighbouring country, away from the disgusting polluting city lights, I always see these light up the dark sky while waiting for a real meteor. Craig Mathieson The sight of a flare flickering as it passed in and out of the shadows cast by the mountains of Northern Ireland over the horizon is unforgettable. I hope they will send up new satellites with mirror coatings to replace the Iridium ones. Perhaps if we all campaign to bring back the flares! Keith Moseley Will miss them. Telling the uninitiated to watch the sky at certain times made me look like a magician. Peter McCarthy Too much light pollution here to see them, which is a pity. Michael Boschat They were interesting and at public observing sessions some people thought they saw a meteor. I could always tell them what it was. Even getting one on a photo was not bad. Malcolm Haswell I was so pleased to catch one over the rooftops a few months ago but they can be frustrating to photograph (even with an app to predict them). I guess I’ll just have to take some better shots of the ISS then. OOPS! In our feature ‘Go For Launch’ on page 69 of the January issue we said, “CNSA could also send the first-ever uncrewed sample return mission to the lunar near-side, Chang’e 5…”, when what we meant was, “CNSA could also send its first-ever uncrewed sample return mission…”. As reader Frank Ellis wrote to point out, the first uncrewed sample-return mission to the Moon was the Soviet Luna 16 mission in 1970, which brought back 101g of lunar soil from its landing site 150km north of Crater Langrenus.