I originally wrote Tom Polakis hoping he could assist but I haven't heard from him so perhaps someone in the group can help. Here is what I wrote Tom. Tom, I was flying United Flight 702 from Chicago to Phoenix tonight. We were at 32,000 feet just east of Albuquerque, when I noticed a bright light in Leo, just south of Regulus. I initially thought it might be the ISS but then it faded quickly and appeared to perhaps have a slight northern motion. That was not consistent with an ISS pass so I thought it must be an Iridium flare. Then a short time later it reappeared in about the same location in the sky. I continued to see this phenomena over the course of about 40 minutes. It would re-appear about every 6 to 8 minutes. On one occasion it grew bright, dimmed from sight and then almost instantly reappeared as bright. By this time I was expecting its re-appearance and I am sure I observed it to have a northern motion after it faded from its greatest intensity. From this pattern, I am sure whatever was creating the light was in an orbit coming from the west, turning north, then heading west. I continued to see this pattern until we were down to about 10,000 feet on the arrival into Phoenix when I had to concentrate on my arrival into SkyHarbor. I suspect whatever was creating the display had to be at extremely high altitude for us to see it from eastern New Mexico all the way to about Payson, and the race-track type movement is not consistent with any known object in space. I suspect the object was in the Edwards or Nellis Test areas of Nevada. I have included a copy of our flight log recorded by Flight Aware: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL702 on the 25th. The times in the log are eastern but our time over New Mexico to Arizona was from about 0400 to 0525 zulu. It should be possible using the log position and time, the position of Regulus and Leo at those times, to calculate an angle yielding an approximate altitude. I suspect it had to be in the 80,000' and up range for us to see it from so far to the east. It is possible it is a UAV but it would need to be a fast moving one to make so many turns in a holding pattern. The timing of the re-appearance is consistent with an aircraft making a standard rate turn, taking about 2 minutes to make a 180 degree turn and then executing about 1 to 2 minute legs. From your background and experience of shooting the ISS, can you or can you recommend someone that is capable of performing these calculations. I'm afraid my math skills are little rusty for this. Also with the Grand Canyon Star Party occurring, I would think there has to be others that also witnessed the same thing I did. Thanks for your help. I look forward to hearing from you. Cary B. Grant -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.