Yeah, I know...

I said I was going to quit. But I saw something so interesting last night that I have to mention it.

Hey blog, guess what! Last night I saw the ISS and the ATV simultaneously. The ATV was leading the station and was a lot smaller and dimmer, but there was no mistaking it once the motion was caught. The ATV is the Automated Transfer Vehicle. The first one is named Jules Verne. It's to take cargo to the ISS for supply. It's 32 feet long and about 15 in diameter. That's kind of small when you think about how high up it was in the sky, and yet it was visible to the naked eye. Being lit by the sun definitely was advantageous for seeing it. Because it was small, I didn't catch it when it first came up over the horizon. I missed it entirely. However not far behind was the space station...and that is hard to miss. It's so big and bright now, brighter than Venus. Once I caught sight of that, it was easy to find the ATV. And then we stood and watched them both speed across the sky. I had not before seen two objects simultaneously that were not docked. It was fascinating, to me at least. I loved every minute of it. The ATV was lost quickly as soon as it began to move out of the sun's light and dimmed. But the ISS was visible from horizon to horizon, about a 5 minute pass. And we stood and watched it the entire time. A wonderful, wonderful show. A grand dance in the heavens with ISS chasing ATV through the constellations and to the horizon. Wow...