Space, the final frontier...

Space exploration is amazing. Truly amazing with a capital F. And I've never ceased to feel such wonderment when looking up at the dark, clear and sparkling sky.

Did you know that NASA landed a satellite (Shoemaker) on an asteroid in Feb 2001? It was an historic first ever landing. Well geez, I was clueless about it until I watched the Science Channel on cable a few weeks ago. (In fact, I'm clueless about most current events ever since the kids were born.)

What astounds me is how NASA managed to land the satellite on an asteroid (Eros) that at best resembles a 21 mile long potato rotating in space. With such an oblong shape and thus an ever changing gravity field, it certainly was an improbable feat to accomplish. But they did it, and without any landing gear, since Shoemaker was not originally intended to touch down. 'Wow that's hot!' as Paris Hilton would say.

So what's up for this week? Well, the 3 brightest planets will be humping each other--Venus, Mercury and Saturn. I mean, they'll be visible in a local area of the sky so you could view them together in a single glance. I haven't gotten a looksie myself, but I'm just waiting for these starry nights to clear up a bit first.

Additional highlights for the 2005 skies may be found here. I'm mostly anticipating the Perseid Meteor Shower since it takes me way back to 1986 (was that the year?) when my closest friends and I roughed it on a week long adventure in the campgrounds of Pennsylvania. We weren't aware then, but it so happens that the plethora of shooting stars (and I mean a friggin helluva lot of shooting stars) that we were tracking above us were the Perseids. Goodness, there were so many! And how beautifully fortunate we were to have crystal clear skies then to just lay back and gaze. It's since become one of the most memorable moments of that summer as well as of my childhood, and it's forever kept me looking up in appreciation. In appeciation of the wonders of space ... and of the beauty of friendship.