Just watched this Centaur stage pass over Chicago tonight (9/22/14). A beauty, bright with varying colors from orange to silver to white with a couple of brilliant reflection flashes thrown in, and tumbling so that the magnitude steadily varies. The stage is currently listed in a 487 x 711 km, 64.7° orbit, making it a nice bright Centaur for us mid-latitude types to observe.
I like to remind myself that a lot of fantastic old hardware is still up there, some of it dating back to the early days of the space age. Watching this one made me wonder how many of these old dead objects might actually still have something still "alive" (electronically speaking), unannounced, on them, hiding in plain sight.
- Ed Kyle