I am not up on the latest blast-off or which satellite is where in the sky, but this morning I watched the International Space Station (ISS) and the docked space shuttle Discovery whiz across the sky. The whole thing lasted about three minutes.
Learning is fasinating. So I learned that there are currently 14 people in the ISS and that is the most people in space at one ever. The light being reflected from its surfaces, which are what we see, was bright and clearly distinguishable. Yes, it helps if you know where to look and at what time - that was 5:50 something am and SSW - thanks to sister and brother -in-law.
I am not exactly sure what I am going to do with this new knowledge nor do I have any plans on how to use this morning's experience. What I do know is that there are some exciting things happening in this world. Our kids are growing up with this stuff just as common day events. Quick quiz -- when did the Discovery launch which is docked at the ISS now? Don't be too shy, it was last week or so but I can't come up with the date -- I do know how to look up the information and in a pinch could generate the answer but it is not in my memory at this moment.
On the other hand I can almost tell you what I was wearing when I was staring at a black and white TV through lots of static and watched the first moon landing. None of the kids in high school right now lived through anything prior to 1992. They are part of a new and different place. I hope it is also exciting. They will be doing stuff and making their living doing stuff we once upon a time might have thought about as science fiction - if we could even image something that so far out.
Just in case you wondering here at the times in the next few days for the sighting of the docked space shuttle and ISS:
April 11 - 5:54 am WSW
April 12 - 4:46 am SSE
April 13 - 5:09 am W
April 14 - 5:32 am W
April 15 - 4:23 am N
Happy hunting -- learn something new today!
No comments:
Post a Comment