My quiet obsession with satellites — and how they're ruining everything

Did you ever see an Iridium flare? For two decades until 2019, these communication satellites would become dazzlingly bright for a second or so in the night sky. I used to see them by accident before discovering that some websites and apps could forecast precisely when and where they would occur. I got so obsessed with Iridium flares that I would build my stargazing sessions around them. Eventually, I started trying to take night sky images just as they flared. …