... knowing that the sensible thing to do after working at the bookstore was in the early evening make my drive to rhode island, instead i decided to take john up on his offer to attend the star party at colby college's collins observatory ... we arrived to find both great appreciation and celebration of the heavens above ...
... local astronomers set up their telescopes and invited visitors to view the intriguing objects upon which they had focused the lenses ...
... to me, equally fascinating as the distant stars and nebula being viewed in the devices were the looks of awe upon the faces of the little children as they left the earth and ascended into an infinitely fascinating universe ...
... the "highpoint" of the evening was when one of the colby astronomers notified the crowd, "in five minutes the iridium communications satellite will be unfolding it's solar panel" ... at the appropriate time he counted down "5—4—3—2—1" and on cue a brilliant light appeared in sky ... for perhaps ten-fifteen seconds, even being only the size of a compact car, it equalled the brilliance of the full moon ... although it orbits 485 miles above the earth's surface, at over 17,000 miles-per-hour it moved enough that the five-second exposure i took captured it as a streak of light ... i was, to say the least, most impressed ...
... before we left our friend, wayne, treated me to a fantastic view of the orion nebula ... to witness stars being born, i can think of no better way to spend a cold winter's eve ...
He burned his house down for the fire insurance
And spent the proceeds on a telescope
To satisfy a lifelong curiosity
About our place among the infinities.
ROBERT FROST
... i left for rhode island in the middle of the night ... having the highway pretty much to myself, i set the cruise control, thought of the orion nebula, and smiled all the way to my brother's house ...