Satellite with side-to-side motion?

From: Timothy Link (tlink@uidaho.edu)
Date: Tue Jul 14 2009 - 04:48:09 UTC

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    Folks -
    	I'm a newbie here, and very much an amateur, so please bear with me.
    I'm looking for help identifying a strange moving object that I
    spotted last weekend, and have been unable to find any information on
    after completing several internet searches.
    
    The object was very bright (I'd estimate 1 to 2 x the brightness of
    Venus) and the brightness was steady.  It followed a straight path but
    had a very noticeable and regular side-to-side motion.  The amplitude
    of the apparent wobble was about 4-5x the diameter of the object or
    more and hence was very noticeable.  The motion did not appear to be
    symmetric (i.e. like a sine wave) but was more like a saw pattern that
    gave the appearance that it was accelerating and decelerating.  It
    appeared to be fairly low altitude, completely silent, and relatively
    slow moving, taking about 4-5 min to cross the sky.
    
    Here's the pertinent info:
    Location: 47.14 N, -116.25 W (~60 miles SE of Spokane, WA)
    Elevation: ~4850 ft.
    Time:  ~0500 UTC, July 11, 2009 +/- ~ 0.5 hrs (~1000 PDT local time)
    Direction of movement:  West to East, possibly slightly WNW to ESE)
    Weather: Completely dark (before moonrise), clear and dead calm.
    
    I'm assuming that this is a satellite of some sort, but have seen few
    objects as bright, and have never seen anything in the night sky with
    a distinctive wobbling motion.  Could anyone help identify this object?
    
    Many Thanks,
    
    -Tim
    
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