Last night I saw probably the most spectacular event so far. At around 9:15 (Central Standard Time) I watched the International Space Station orbit over my house from horizon to horizon. It started off in the west, southwest direction of my home, flying out of the sunset's final rays. A little flicker of light flew faster than airplanes, zooming across the dusk sky towards Detroit and Canada. It was so cool to be able to see something man put into space fly overhead on such a clear night. As my family watched it, other, smaller, pinpricks of light moved amongst the stars. Satellites for communication, GPS, and more, were moving in a silent orchestrated pattern in space. I was awestruck that I could see such things in space from my backyard, without a telescope.
I hope I can convey my emotions on this subject to you. If not, find the next time the station passes over your house, and go outside and look up. You will see planes and stars. But if you stare in one spot long enough, you will see "stars" moving across the sky. They aren't UFOs, but satellites. And the light reflecting off them comes from the sun. The reflection of light is so cool, because it shows how light must travel to get to Earth. And, just for some additional information, the light from stars travels for millions or billions of years before reaching our eyes. It's like looking into the past. Not necessarily time travel, but it's close enough at this point.
Until next time.
NASA sends out the alerts after calculating the sun's angle and angle of the ISS solar panels, then calcs a ground path for the solar reflection.
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