I observed the sun-glint off NEAR naked eye, and also captured it on video. The bad news: it was about 2 magnitudes fainter than predicted, its maximum brightness equalling or very slightly exceeding that of Alpha Perseii (1.9). The good news: it was visible longer than predicted, seen on the video for almost two minutes. I set up my six-year old JVC compact VHS-C video camcorder (model GR-AX2, supposedly 1 LUX when the gain is turned up) on a tripod in my yard. It was set to maximum zoom (6x), auto-focus turned off, manually focused to infinity. Observations were hampered by a thin layer of clouds or haze, plus the usual light pollution in San Jose. Time signals from WWV were played on my radio, and can be heard on the soundtrack. Amazingly, the limiting magnitude on the video is approximately 4.5. NEAR is first seen on the video at 06:43:22 UT (23 Jan 1998). It slowly brightens to about magnitude 2 by about 06:44:00, then remains at or near that brightness for approx. 1 minute. It fades quickly, and disappears from the video at 06:45:10. During this time it has covered most of the distance from Delta to Alpha Perseii. I tried to spot it before and afterward in 20x80 binoculars, but did not see it. It was not practical to try to A) work the video camera, B) look with naked eye, and C) search with large binoculars, so I mostly ignored C. Robert Sheaffer - robert@debunker.com - Skeptical to the Max! my GPS tells me I'm at 37 deg 17.3' N., 121 deg 59.2' west (San Jose, CA) Visit my Home Page - http://www.debunker.com/~sheaffer Skeptical Resources Debunking All Manner of Bogus Claims Also: Opera / Astronomy / Mens Issues / more