Oh wow, so awesome! Thanks for the links. I know where I'll be this evening....

Hey, I saw that the other day. I thought it was Mars at first, but it was moving slowly, so I assumed it was a satellite. I hadn't seen such a bright satellite before though. Now I know!

I think maybe I've seen it, too - at the time, I thought it was Venus, but it was crazy-bright.

Thanks for this, y2karl - this coming week has great times and locations for sightings from my place.

Well, moving slowly is a relative term, It moved across the sky in under four minutes--and it was high enough in the sky to be above the trees--and will do the same tonight in three and a half. It seemed faster than the average satellite bear to me.

It's absolutely useless to try to use a telescope on that thing and my binoculars were not all that useful. But it's just neat to see it.

Now here's an idea: the Perseids are coming and I think a Pacific NOrthwest Mefi star party should be organized. In Seattle. We could go to Green Lake or Discovery Park.

(For a really ambitious and alcohol-free/dedicated driver concept, there's a pdf of a map of a logging road near Issaquah that ends atop a bluff, facing south, online. It's at the web site of the Boeing Employee Astronomical SOciety. That would require sturdy vehicles and alert drivers as the road is gravel for two miles but that's what you have to do to get to what passes for a dark sky around here. Like, Milky Way's-ville, if you know what I mean.)

On an alternate note, I love to go canoeing over by the UW and, having done it for decades, know all the cool spots. You can rent until after 8 for another week, I think. And around six is best. A canoe trip should be organized as well. Like Great Blue Heron's-ville, if you know what I mean.

And there were still itty bitty second clutch ducklings as of last week. towards whom can cast one's bread upon the water with hilarity ensuing.

Saw it again last night and it was just as cool. It passed within a few degrees of Jupiter and it was much brighter than the planet to the naked eye. In binoculars, it showed as a tiny tilted rectangle of orange-white.