Kind of a wonderful thing

[aesc]

My parents live on the fringes of the middle of nowhere.

A couple nights ago, I took the dog out for a walk, looked up, and saw the Milky Way for the first time in years. So many stars, so many, and they seemed so close, and looking at them I could understand why thousands of years ago people told stories about men and women changed into stars, and why today we tell stories about people lucky enough to travel through them.

Then, somewhere in the neighborhood of Venus, I saw a shooting star.

And that was kind of a wonderful thing.

* * *

In other news: To come back to the prosaic, I have an account over at Twitter. slian_martreb tugged me over the cliff face.

Oh! And I had my preview of the_oscar_cat's reading of the kissing ficlet I posted over at sheafrotherdon's LJ, and she makes it poetry. I can't wait to hear the rest.

Comments

[yellowvalley.livejournal.com]

I lived and worked out in Death Valley for a year in 2001/02. I was literally able to see one shooting star per night, and could watch as our satellites moved across the sky it was so dark. You could see them turn, as well, because of the amount of light different surfaces of the satellites reflected. It was amazing.

While I was there, we had a huge meteor shower, where for about 3 hours, no matter where you looked in the sky, there was always at least one shooting star. It was one of the best nights of my life, something I will never forget.

What's funny? Is that if you looked at the horizon of one of the mountain ranges, you could see the lights of Las Vegas like a glow, almost like the sun was coming up, and the lights of the planes coming in to land at the airport.

[yellowvalley.livejournal.com]

Oh, here is a link to my favorite pic of the Milky Way over Death Valley.


http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070508.html

[aesc.livejournal.com]

You could see them turn, as well, because of the amount of light different surfaces of the satellites reflected. It was amazing.

Oh my God. I don't think I ever would have slept. That's just remarkable.

It was one of the best nights of my life, something I will never forget.

When the Hale-Bopp comet visited us, my family dragged out our home-made telescope and watched it every night until it disappeared. And it never got old--we'd be out there for hours, until my mom persuaded us into bed, but I could have watched until the second I couldn't see it anymore.

[yellowvalley.livejournal.com]

Yeah. A couple months after I got there, a guy moved in next door with binoculars. It was amazing what you could see with just regular binoculars on a clear night.

Almost every night that I got off late, I didn't enter the dorms until I saw at least one shooting star. The longest I waited was thirty minutes. :)