I have never seen an Iridium flare or bothered to look for them before, but I saw something tonight that seems to fit the general description.
Tonight at around 8.50pm I saw a moving dot of light and I was thinking "wow this is bright for a satelite." I was watching it for maybe 20 seconds then it become much brighter for about 10 seconds or so before fading back to the brightness it was before. About another 20 secs or so later it faded within a few seconds to become invisible.
It tracked very close from south to north, grazing Achernar and was quite spectacular
