It flew above the trees between the moon and the North star at a few seconds past the stroke of 9:22. It went almost directly up, arching slowly, higher and higher for a little over two and a half minutes. Then, suddenly, it went dark. Only the tiniest edge of moon-reflected light was visible on its western side for as long as it took to read this sentence. And then, it disappeared for good, hidden behind the shadow of the earth.
It was amazing.
Plus we saw Betelgeuse, Sirius, Orion and his belt and sword, the quarter moon up close, and the tiny, speedy Mars. We saw the Seven Sisters and learned that the North Star never moves. We saw Cassiopeia and learned that the middle tip of its W shape points more or less toward the North Star. We learned that it also plays ring around the rosy with the Big Dipper around the North Star every night. We learned that Orion's right shoulder is the upper right point of the winter triangle or whatever it was called. And we learned that Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, a level 0 star, or something like that. Betelgeuse was a level 1, I think. 
The International Space Station didn't fly in front of the moon, but here's a link in case you want to see more or less what we saw and get to see it go in front of the moon, too! Click on this sentence to go to the YouTube video. It's 20 seconds long. The video, that is.
And by the way, I only noticed that I was spelling Betelgeuse way wrong (as it was pronounced Beatle-juice when I heard it), so I fixed it. But the rest are probably all spelled wrong and I just wanted you to know that I did not check them. Thank you for not thinking any less of me...
7 comments:
i did not know prior to this evening's earlier conversation that you were so into stars. that is really cool. i think that space is one of the things that most boggles my mind and intrigues me at the same time. i'm serious, next time you guys go, call me. i want to go too.
Stargazing, with hot chocolate in tow, is one of the best ways to start the weekend. Good call.
I keep getting the nagging feeling that we should have been friends.
Stars are so romantic. ;) For reals, tho, I love stars.
and when he says space station he really means an actual space station not like a whitty way of saying he is zoning out...don't be confused in a text if that ever happens.
Haha...don't worry. I still think you are funny friend. Even if confusion happened.
and when I said whitty...i actually was supposed to spell it witty.
jessi's comments ALWAYS make me laugh. I want to go next time too Chrees, don't forget.
can i go too?
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