Astronomy

Last night there were some beautiful things happening

in the night sky. We had just come out of the movie

theater and were walking to the van admiring the beauty

of the stars, when we saw a meteor.

It reminded Jon and Evey that they had been wanting to

watch the Perseid meteor shower. They were excited to

get home to lay out on the tramp and watch such an

amazing event. We had missed the eclipse earlier in the

summer. It was not visible from New York where we were,

but it was visible here in Utah. We had heard it was pretty cool.

On our way home from the theater at about 9:30 the moon

was amazing. It was a waxing crescent and it was setting

just on the western horizon so it was huge and beautiful. I

wish I would have had my camera. We commented that it

was just like the Dreamworks logo,

it was on the brain, we

had just seen Shrek Forever After.

It ended up that the best time to see the Meteor shower

was between 3 and 4am when there would be about

70-80 per hour. Earlier it is only a stray one every now

and then. So Evey's hopes of laying on the tramp were

crushed. So, we decided we would set an alarm and get

up at 3 to watch the peak....

3am we were rudely awakened by the beeping alarm.

We debated whether or not to get up or just go back to

sleep. I grudgingly decided to just do it, the girls had

been really excited to see it. I went outside and stared

at the sky. It was wonderfully brisk. Not hot, not cold,

just perfect, but tired eyes play tricks, so I wasn't sure

if I was really seeing any. Jon came out and saw a few

and then I saw one and was excited to wake the girls.

Paris was excited to wish on a shooting star. So we got

them up, wrapped them in blankets and brought them out.

The tramp was drenched from morning precipitation, so

we all laid on the pic-nic table and looked at the clear night

sky. Jon and I kind of wished we still lived in the boonies in

the mountains where no city lights glare in the sky,

just pure black, and millions of shining stars.

Evey was able to see quite a few, but Paris was having a hard

time staying awake. Then there was a really big one with a

long tail, she was so happy she got to see it. It was truly

amazing. We were glad we made ourselves get up to admire

the beauty round us.

We didn't stay out too long, the sprinklers turn on at 4 and so

to avoid that fun, we went back in and got a few more hours of sleep.