I saw one too in the same but it was telescopic, passing slowly by a galaxy in a low-power field. I watched it move along and then turned off the drive. The stars then moved past as it sat stationary in the field, but the illusion still persisted of it moving thru the stars and I kept expecting it to go out of the field of view. Jack ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Polakis" <tpolakis@xxxxxxx> To: <AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 1:26 PM Subject: [AZ-Observing] Naked-eye Geosynchronous Satellite Last night, the conditions were about as good as they get at the Arizona City site. Nice to see another good turnout for the All-Arizona Star Party. Just a couple days ago, Brian Skiff mentioned to me that he saw a naked-eye star that was out of place in Cetus. He recognized it as a geosynchronous satellite as soon as he noticed that it was in the declination band (roughly -5 degrees). At midnight last night I was thinking about his observation, and looked up into Cetus to see an extra 3rd-magnitude star near Zeta Ceti. The view through the scope revealed another stationary satellite, trailing it by a few arcminutes. Since the telescope field at the site is so expansive, I only told Rick Rotramel and Paul Lind, who were nearby. Last year at this time, we saw a naked-eye geostationary satellite from Steve and Rosie Dodder's place on October 14. They flare when they are near opposition from the sun, but out of the earth's shadow, which is 17 degrees in diameter. //www.freelists.org/archives/az-observing/10-2006/msg00039.html //www.freelists.org/archives/az-observing/10-2006/msg00042.html This subject is covered in some detail by Jeff Umberger on the SeeSat-L mailing list. http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Sep-2006/0029.html His map for 33N indicates that we are within a couple days of the end of the window for flaring geosynchronous satellites. Tom -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.