NASA has formed a partnership with Spaceweather.com to engage the amateur astronomy community to submit the best images of the orbiting NanoSail-D solar sail. NanoSail-D unfurled the first ever 100-square-foot solar sail in low-Earth orbit on Jan. 20. To encourage observations of NanoSail-D, Spaceweather.com is offering prizes for the best images of this historic, pioneering spacecraft. The contest is open to all types of images, including, but not limited to, telescopic captures of the sail to simple wide-field camera shots of solar sail flares. If NanoSail-D is in the field of view, the image is eligible for judging.
NanoSail-D website They have links to satellite tracking software, web based and for mobile phones (iPhone and Android).
...What I don't know is, how long do these flares last.
They are probably similar to flares off the flat surfaces of the Iridium satellites, and if so they will last a few seconds. Given that the sail is not perfectly flat, it may be that they will be somewhat longer.
Here is a link to a new article on NanoSail flares, with some info on Iridium flares from communications satellites. There are additional links (including one to the contest) at the end of the article.
I've downloaded a few satellite tracking applications for the iPhone... no NanoSail flybys over my sky this week. There are a few Iridium flares that look good, though, so I might be out tomorrow evening to photograph one. Flare magnitude is -8 at the center.
