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Originally posted by Singe2112
UPDATE: Confirmed to be ISS:
ISS History for 23188
In Williamsburg, Virginia here and I saw the same thing last Thursday evening around 1900 or so. I had just eaten dinner and was outside for a smoke afterwards and noticed a very large, bright object moving towards the NE. Relative to me, it had already passed zenith (slightly north on the celestial sphere) and was moving down towards the NNE horizon.
My first thought was regular satellite, I look for them all the time and like to follow them across, but this was much brighter. My second thought was iridium flare, I love catching those when I take the time to look up the schedule, but it lasted much longer than a flare would, it was constant magnitude. I would equate the magnitude as the ISS or when I saw MIR years ago. I even considered looking up the ISS orbit to see if it was crossing, but never did. It had no other lights that I saw (never saw the red, perhaps that was due to your digital zoom device, not sure) but definitely no other lights visible to the naked eye. I can also say it was definitely not an aircraft.
What was odd is that normally when I track satellites they are in view quickly, and moving very fast, and then gone. This object didn't appear to change directions or arcs, as you described (I was late viewing, perhaps it had straightened out) but it did seem to change speed a couple times. I was thinking that I actually could have ran inside and grabbed my DSLR and gotten someone else to come take a look before it disappeared behind the trees, and I regret not doing so. When it finally did go behind my neighbor's large oak, it seemed I could still move around and see it in the same position for a while longer, like it slowed down very much before dropping below the horizon.
Anyways, I'll still be outside keeping my eyes open and up.
Singe2112
PS: Rush fan here too.
edit on 16-10-2012 by Singe2112 because: Added PSedit on 16-10-2012 by Singe2112 because: Link to ISS History