>>Tonight Landsat 4 went to a -1 to -2 for about 10-15 seconds at >>18:47:00-18:47:15 EST (23:47:00-23:47:00). It did a pretty fair >>imitation of the Mir for a few seconds. >I had a similar observation whilst I was waiting for a pass of EGP. It >flared up to Mag 0 to -1 for about >15 seconds before fading over a period of 5-10 seconds to Mag. +3 to +4 >as I followed in binoculars. I had a very similar observation of Landsat 4 tonight. I was waiting to view it with my telescope as it passed Gamma Ursa Majoris (practicing for the later pass of TiPS). About a minute early (22:52:30 UT), and well to the celestial southwest something caught my eye. Understand: the periferal blurry vision OUTSIDE the rim of my glasses shouldn't allow magnitude 5.7 sightings (especially 20 degrees from the full moon!) I estimate it peaked at 0 to -2, wide because I was to dumbfounded to check it versus Sirius. The time-course would be much as Jason describes above, and I too followed it to about 4th magnitude, but through the finder scope on my cumbersome 10" reflector. Awesome. Question: is this an Iridium flare-like phenomenon from its solar panels? if so, should anyone reasonably expect to see such a flare on only 10 or 20 or more viewed passes? Tyler (Joe Stats) MacKenzie Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/5918/ 44.636N 63.595W 50m ASL