Tony Beresford: >Sputnik 1 was observed to be mag 6, by the Sacremento and >San Antonio moonwatch teams. ( October 16,1957). >These observations are reasonably consistent with what you >would expect for a specular reflecting sphere of its size. This kind of info I was expecting (hoping for). I quess those teams could make the difference with the rocket. Still it may be that some of those who thought they saw Sputnik actually saw the rocket. Then what mag to expect for a sphere of 1/3 of the original size? Too dark to be observed? Best regards, Arto Vuorela tel. +358 (0)205 41 5582 National Land Survey/Satellite Image Centre fax +358 (0)205 41 5505 PL 84, FIN-00521 Helsinki arto.vuorela@nls.fi Finland http://www.nls.fi/sat/