I’m a Sucker for Space

Tuesday night on the 10 o’clock news they announced that the space shuttle / space station would be flying overhead from 6:04 – 6:11 am the next morning. It would be traveling from the NW to the ESE and be the “bright moving light in the sky.” I happily went to bed thinking that I would try to get up for that rare vista.

Before I tell you what happened, we need to travel back in time to the fourth grade. I was in Mrs. Bryson’s class at Villa Del Rey Elementary in Baton Rouge. This was a year filled with astronomy. We learned all about nebulas, quasars, stars and space. We would go outside and count sun spots and watch them move around the sun. (I think paper plates were involved in that!) I can still remember the report I wrote on nebulas and the goofy drawing on the cover. Have you ever tried to draw a nebula? We went to the planetarium, we watched eclipses, and something in me really took hold.

My love of space continued to grow over the years. I can’t pass a planetarium without wanting to go inside. I look up at the stars every night we are out to see Orion, the Big Dipper, or Cassiopeia. Who wasn’t glued to the TV set watching Cosmos when Carl Sagan explained about the “billions and billions of stars” and how time and space were related? The family accepts my fascination, but usually doesn’t join in on those nights when I run out the front door every five minutes to “see what the eclipse looks like now.”

Fast forward to today. My husband laughs each time they announce the Pleiades meteorite showers, or a comet, or the planets all lining up at night. Because he knows I will be outside in the dead of night in my jammies with my head tilted back as far as it will go just to catch a glimpse of it. I have been known to get in my car and drive down the dark road near my house at 3am and stand outside my car to watch. And, on occasion, I am surrounded by other neighbors getting out of their cars in their jammies.

So, it was no wonder that a gleeful gal was seen dashing out her front door at 6:05 am yesterday in a bathrobe. There I was, standing in the middle of my driveway watching the shiny bright object slowly cross from the NW to the ESE. It was lovely. It was awesome. And it is now just another little secret tucked away among my space memories. I doubt many saw it here, which makes it even more lovely to me.

Did you see it?