Hi all, during a star party this evening we observed a bright and fast flasher in an obviously very low orbit. The object moved west to east just south of Arcturus, made its way through the southern parts of Hercules and entered Cygnus. The brightness varied rapidly from +1 mag to +5. The lightcurves pattern was very complex but not irregular with varying maxima spaced by 2 to 4 seconds. One had the impression of a body tumbling around more than one axis. Have never seen before such an impressive flasher! Date: June 11, 1999, Time: 21:50 UT +-2 minutes (sorry, no better timing possible because of circumstances), Location: Darmstadt-Eberstadt, Germany, +49.9N,8.6E, 120m. Is it possible that we observed the Long March upper stage of todays Iridium launch before its reentry?? Are there more passes over Europe before reentry? Cheers, Gunnar