I was outside tonight, and saw something I'd never seen before. It was certainly a satellite- right speed, right track- but its magnitude oscillated from nothing to fairly bright (about on par with Altair) on a 15 second cycle.

Anyone else ever seen this? It was very cool, and I'm sure anyone who didn't watch the sky regularly might mistake it for an *cough* import or tourist. I'm assuming the satellite is spinning and the changing faces have different reflectivity, but I didn't think most satellites continued to spine after the solar panels and other squashed down bits had been pulled out by centripetal force if that was the method they used.