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Two nights ago (4th Oct) at about 8pm I was outside at the Barby and looked up to see an extraordinarily bright satellite passing the moon. It was right next to the moon, and VERY bright, I'd estimate Mag -6.
Just from the size and speed it had to have been the ISS.
As it faded out to the NE, I glanced NW, and there was the unmistakable view of HST coming across at about Mag 0.
After dinner I checked Heavens-above and found that it was indeed those two satellites, but they reported the magnitudes as being -3.4 for the ISS, and 1.6 for HST.
These numbers were just plain wrong. The ISS was the brightest I have ever seen it, definitely well above -5, and more likely -6 to -6.5
Now back to your sighting. If your time is correct, it wasn't ISS as it was on the other side of the world at that time. Passes over Canberra were at 14:23, 19:25, and 21:00. None of these passes was at a decent elevation either.
Are you sure you have the time right Grant? 17:26 being 5:26PM and still daylight?
Cheers,
Jason.
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