I made two detailed observations of BS-3A ( YURI 3A / 20771 / 90 077A ) over the weekend. I observed on 1999 02 21 from 01:29 to 02:40 UT and timed 49 intervals over 4303.8 seconds giving a period of 87.83 seconds. I missed only two of these flashes when I tried to see them naked eye. There is a significant range in brightness with the faintest being about 8th magnitude and the brightest about 4th. The bright ones are very hard to judge through a 25cm reflector. I normally cannot see the satellite but occasionally there is a brightening to about 10th magnitude between the flashes. Strangely, this ocurrs 3/4 of the way between the flashes, not in the middle. Furthermore, this extra brightening always preceeds a fainter than usual flash. The second set of observations was made on 1999 02 22 from 02:13 to 05:28 UT. Knowing the period from the night before, I did not try to observe all of the flashes but instead left an 11 cm reflector pointed at the satellite position and made occasional observations while looking for other things. I then fitted the data to a period close to the evening before and obtained a value of 87.84 seconds based on 133 intervals. I followed the flashes until they began to fade The fading pattern is clearly: bright, faint, fainter. By the time I quit, the third of the three was lost first, then the second, and the bright ones were almost invisible. I suspect that the object is actually precessing slowly rather than being in a simple spin. This would lead to the angle of the reflecting solar panel(s) changing slightly. I am puzzled by the timing of the extra brightning in the middle. I assume that the AS3000 spacecraft has the solar panels protuding from the centres of the faces of a roughly cubic box so that the flashes cannot originate from the side panels of the satellite itself. I have to wonder if I am picking up a reflection from an antenna oriented at an acute angle to both the satellite structure and the solar panel. Cheers, Brian Brian K. Hunter, Department of Chemistry Professor Queen's University bkh@chem.queensu.ca Kingston, Ontario (613)-533-2620 Canada K7L 3N6 44 14' N 76 30' W