Here is a puzzle for you all, and I hope it is one that you can solve, since I really want to know the answer!

A few minutes ago I was outside, binocular viewing from here at my Hamilton home. I had some nice views of the usual suspects like M42 and the Pleiades, but I was really there to have a look at Venus and see if I could see the crescent phase of Venus through both my 10x60s and my 15x70s (the answer was ‘yes’ in both).

Casting my eye around the sky I noticed a bright star in the east and pondered for a moment, since there is no star that bright in that part of the sky. Sure enough it was movng and certainly a satellite, as it was moving at a steady pace and direction and showed nothing more than a snigle, steady light. It brightened considerably until it was about mag -2 or -3 (brighter than Sirius but not quite as bright as Venus). I was certain that it was the ISS, since only the space station could appear that bright, but it seemed to be moving rather slow for the station. I checked on the Heavens-Above web site (http://www.heavens-above.com/?lat=43.250&lng=-79.833&alt=92&loc=Hamilton&TZ=EST), and no ISS passes were scheduled at that time. In fact, nothing that bright was scheduled and nothing following the path I obseved this object on was was scheduled either. There was one satellite that matches the times perfectly, but not the orbital path (http://www.heavens-above.com/PassDetails.asp?Size=600&SatID=16182&lat=43.250&lng=-79.833&alt=92&loc=Hamilton&TZ=EST&Date=39867.0031120895)

So here’s what I know:

-Visible at 7:00 to 7:03pm (at it highest), Feb 22
-moving east to northwest ( from the head of Leo to just above the bowl of the Big Dipper then past the Little Dipper then fading)
-mag -3 (but fading as it moved past north)
-moving slower than the ISS usually seems to (which indicates a higher orbit)
-even through my binoclars it appeared as a single, steady point of light

Good luck, team! Let me know what you think.