I went through the archives of the SeeSat-L mailing list to find the answer. http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Sep-2006/0029.html For a period of a month or so near the Equinox, the geostationary satellites are placed near opposition from the sun at a particular time of night. The site notes that flaring geosats will rival some of the brightest stars in the sky. Not long after the flare, the geosats move into the Earth's shadow and disappear completely, only to flare again when they come out of the eclipse. We did not see our geosat disappear last night. Using his flare calculator and instructions, it misses the position of last night's flare near Iota Ceti by a few degrees, but it's close enough to show what is going on. Tom -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.