PR>> Is there something else up there big enough to be visible?

 ml>> there are many... i regularly see ISS when it flys over...
 ml>> then there's all the iridiums, cosomos', and i don't know
 ml>> what all else...

 PR> Yes, I used to work for the company that made the unknown what
 PR> elses. But I didn't think those were large enough to be visible!

well, they aren't without a bit of reflected light ;-)

 PR> The two I saw were easily recognizable, and travelling at
 PR> about the same speed, implying similar altitude.  I've seen
 PR> Alpha before, so that's that I immediately thought the first
 PR> was.  Anything else that high would have to be about as big
 PR> to be so visible.  I don't think many things are. HST?
 PR> Maybe?  Is it in a polar/high-inclination orbit?

HST is about 28 degree inclination at about 350 statute miles altitude...
ISS is about 51 degree inclination at about 250 statute miles... i'm not
sure what all is listed as being in LEO (low earth orbit) but i know that
there are over 8000 pieces being tracked...

i guess most of what i do see is in LEO... my problem is getting the tools
i have coordinated enough for me to put in a time, date, rough altitude
angle, and azimuth (compass) heading and get a list of what should be
passing thru there... then i put them into another program and look to see
if i do see what i saw... the major problem that i've found is that some
take UTC 5 as east coast USA time and others take UTC-5... then, there's
the ones that take -79 longitude (west of greenich) as 79... latitude
doesn't seem to be a problem... it can be confusing and when one is trying
to figure things out with little documentation, failure is inevitable
unless one gets lucky...

hopefully one day i'll be able to get them right and be able to say, hey, i
saw this light at 80 degrees altitude, 90 degreed azimuth, moving in a
northerly heading and i'll be able to confirm it as being cosmos 42 or some
such with more than one program...

)\/(ark