Ten-Finger Exercises

Space watching draws a crowd.

We went out for our nightly search and salute to the men and women aboard the space station and the shuttle. Sometimes our neighbor comes out to watch with us. Tonight we had two Hispanic women and a little girl who went running home to get her mother. They waited impatiently for the orbiter to clear the trees, and then shouted excitedly as each caught sight of it. The little girl said, "Oh, it's just another star." Bill told her it was about the size of a football field, much smaller than a star, but only about 250 miles high. She was marveling how ten people could be inside the object that looked so small to her, and was thrilled to hear that two of them are women.

This information is available at NASA.com, along with the exact times and directions to look for it from wherever you are.

Happy space watching!