[Mary McLean]

Sorry, I replied a few days ago but it got lost. I think it's an awesome sight, especially when it disappears into the shadow of the Earth. That's the sure fire way to identify it, because it doesn't have its own light, only reflected sunlight. Keep watching the skies!

[Catherine Chandler]

Jayne, I wish I had known..... My father, having been a mathematics and space science teacher for many years, trained his children's eyes on the night sky from an early age. I'm talking late 50s, early 60s and beyond. I helped him build a mock-up of a model space station and, even till his last days never faltered in his wonderment of all things "space".

[ross hamilton hill]

Jayne,
I have a love hate relationship with all technolgoy, the magic of radio and tv still amaze me, but last night there was a hour long black out and it was a joy to light candles and enjoy the silent dark.

I knew nothing about ISS Zaria, not on the news here, I will investigate. It is fascinating.

[Jayne Osborn]

Replying to you all in reverse order...

Ross,
Oh, I agree with you. My husband and I often sit in our lounge at night with just candles and a log fire burning (forget the 21st century for a little while)... sheer bliss!
Like you, I knew nothing about ISS Zaria but now that I do, I find it totally fascinating.

Cathy,
Your late father's wonderment of all things ''space'' is very touching. It's so easy for us to take these things for granted, but without the advance of this kind of technology you and I would probably never have known of each other's existence.
That we do makes it all worthwhile!

Mary,
I'm glad you think the ISS is an awesome sight... and, yes, I will "keep watching the skies!"

Ann and Julie,
You both made me laugh so much...
The Oxford comma sentence was deliberate, and I have some Baoding balls...

Better Baoding than Ben Wa.

Oh, I don't know, Annie,...
(but I'm not admitting to whether I also have any of that kind of balls! )

Jayne

[Bill Carpenter]

Hi Jayne,
Ever read Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff about the astronauts in the Mercury space program? Great read! Bill

[Orwn Acra]

A memory that lives on, perhaps even after I do not, is being five or six and walking with my father very late at night down the fluorescent-lit halls of NASA where he worked -- a particular smell of oil in the air which has never been duplicated or smelled again -- to the room with the giant satellites wrapped in copper foil and strange blue light and my first suspicion that something may lie beyond wonder.

[Mary McLean]

Orwn - where did your father work? I had a summer job at Goddard many years ago working with the Solar Maximum Mission satellite. I sometimes regret not going into astrophysics, because I've never worked anywhere else so glamorous.

[Orwn Acra]

He worked (still does) at Goddard. If he worked on SMM it would have been right as he got there and a decade before my time. I'm not sure which satellites I could have seen in construction -- maybe TRMM which launched in the late 90s and which I know he worked on because he'd go to Japan a lot.

I always had the best show-and-tell items because he'd give me pictures taken from the Hubble. Here is Io. Here is Europa. This is Jupiter's ring.

[Charlie Southerland]

Don't despair, Jayne. My wife and I hang out on summer nights and count the satellites as they pass by. It seems they come from every direction. I saw the space station one evening about 4 years ago. I thought it was a star headed our way. There are rewards to winning the satellite count.

[Mary McLean]

Originally Posted by Orwn Acra

He worked (still does) at Goddard. If he worked on SMM it would have been right as he got there and a decade before my time. I'm not sure which satellites I could have seen in construction -- maybe TRMM which launched in the late 90s and which I know he worked on because he'd go to Japan a lot.

I always had the best show-and-tell items because he'd give me pictures taken from the Hubble. Here is Io. Here is Europa. This is Jupiter's ring.

Wow! I was just a lowly data technician in the school holidays, but Goddard is such a great place. There used to be a full-scale model of the space shuttle in the interior courtyard of my building. I wanted to take my husband on one of the tours that used to go past my window, but since 9/11 at least they don't allow furriners on base.

Nerdy is the new cool!