A couple of years back I managed to spot Vanguard 2, the second oldest payload in orbit, having been launched 17 FEB 59. =20 However, I hate being second at anything and the knowledge that the oldest payload, Vanguard 1, launched 17 MAR 58, regularly flew over my head, unobserved, really bugged me. However, spotting a 15 cm sphere in a 650 x 4250 km orbit didn=92t seem possible. But still I plotted. :-) Carefully running the TLEs every Monday looking for the right combination of satellite distance, position, lighting angle and moonlight. Well, I never did find the ideal pass, but this past Monday I noticed there would be a pass this morning that "might" work. So, off went the alarm at 0400 this morning and out I went to my observatory. A few minutes later I was at the eyepiece of my 355 mm scope staring at the spot that Ted Molczan=92s TLEs and my copy of OrbiTrack said the bird would be. And shortly thereafter, right in the place predicted and just a few seconds earlier than expected, just to the top of my field of view passed a tiny point of light. A 39 year old, 15 cm sphere, 1840 km away. Eureka! Now, of course I=92m feeling pretty pleased with myself, but before my eg= o gets the best of me, I wonder if any of the more experienced satellite watchers out there can comment on whether I really could have seen such a small object at such a great distance with such a relatively small scope. In other words, is it possible that I just happened to see something else and mistook it for Vanguard? --=20 Patrick Wiggins, Hansen Planetarium, SLC, UT, USA email: w@apeleon.net WWW: web.state.ut.us/bbs/space snail mail: 15 S. State St., SLC, UT 84111-1590 voice: 801.531-4952 fax: 801.531-4948