Despite wishing I was elsewhere doing something outdoorsy, I’ve hardly left home in the last week and a half. I spent Saturday at home watching some movies that were on television. Dawn of the Dead was much better than I expected. It started out fast and hard, and didn’t let up much. I was hoping for a happy ending, but, well, it is a zombie movie. Brokeback Mountain wasn’t as good as I’d been led to believe. It was worth watching, but it just didn’t live up to the hype.
My sister invited us to drive up onto Wood Hill with her family and watch the ISS fly overhead. What should have been a five minute drive turned into 15 minutes as we detoured around a newly-paved section of 900 North. Still, it’s nice to be able to drive such a short distance and be out of town and away from others. We started a campfire, then sat in our camp chairs and bull-shitted while waiting for 8:55 p.m. The sky was still relatively light since the sun had set not long before then, but the space station was very bright and easy to spot. After watching it for about two minutes before it disappeared into the Earth’s shadow, we stuck around until after full dark and roasted some marshmallows and ate s’mores.
I think I’ll step outside this evening to watch the ISS again. It won’t be as bright as it was yesterday, but it will appear 20 minutes later so the sky will be darker. This is the last time it will be so easily visible for the remainder of the month. I’ll be keeping an eye on the satellite flyby tracker for other interesting night sky objects in the future.