I was on my deck observing star clusters with a pair of astronomy binoculars (25x100). spotted a +3 magnitude pseudo-star just north of castor and pollux (gemini), right in front of me and nearly overhead. the object wandered slowly toward ursa major. when it was about 5 degrees west of the cup of the big dipper, it paused, then brightened intensely (as bright as sirius!). by the time the object got to the cup of the big dipper i was following it through my binoculars. after it became intensely white, it shot like a jet and flew away at tremendous speed, disappearing from view in just two seconds. (i had a clear view of the horizon.) it had taken off due north. i have seen many pseudo-stars in my area, and nearly all go due north when leaving the area. the pseudo-stars usually look like normal stars through binoculars and telescopes, but i have previously photographed some of them and seen a craft structure. this one brightened so much when it took off, even a non-astronomer would have known this was no ordinary star. unfortunately it is still cold here, and i didn't have a camera available to get a photo of this one.