Last night I arrived on the field around 9pm. It was cloudy and trying to rain, with a drop here and there, it was enough to prevent me from getting my telescope out of the car. I opened the warm-up shed, turned the power on and readied the site. While waiting for the scout to show up I inventoried the equipment in the shed and cleaned up a little. Just as I finished the scouts arrived. There scout leaders (adults) and 25 scouts showed up and took seats on the large concrete pad on the field. It was no longer raining but still cloudy.

While waiting, and hoping, for the clouds to go away I talked to the boys for about 40 mins about the legends behind the constellations, the zodiac, other interesting constellations and how to locate some them. I then talked to the boys about how stars are formed, the different types of stars and how they “die”. I spoke to them about the moon, craters, and other formations on the lunar surface, then went into why and how eclipses happen.

We then switched over to a Q&A session and I tried my best to answer the questions. The boys were very well educated on astronomy stuff and asked good questions and even the adults joined in.

After about 15mins of Questions It cleared a little right at the end and I was able to point out Mars and Saturn and show them through my scope. Mars was underwhelming, but Saturn, as always, stole the show. They were amazed that you could see the rings and how clear it was!

At around 11pm they left the field and I packed up and headed home. About 1am I was in bed and resting after a fun and exciting night under the sky.

On May 13th we once again drove down to Florida to visit Misty’s Mom and see a shuttle launch. We arrived around midnight on Friday morning and got settled in. Friday was launch day, we met up around 9:30 with Chris Hetlage for Breakfast and then met the bus to the Banana Creek VIP viewing area near the Saturun V center at Kennedy Space Center. We found a spot right up on the fence and setup our camera’s and waited for the countdown to resume. The weather was beautiful and not too hot. Despite a ball bearing possibly delaying the launch the shuttle launched on time and it was beautiful as always. You can see pics in the link above. Traffic was horrible getting back, the 30 min bus ride took 3.5 hours! The next day we visited with Sandy. Sunday was the long track home. We got home around 6pm and unpacked. We plan to head down for the final two launches later this year.

And for a sneak peek of my January 16 podcast for the 365 days of astronomy Click Here! ( you can right click and save as to download to your pc.)

On May 9th we once again drove down to Florida to visit Misty’s Mom and see a shuttle launch.  We arrived in titusville around 3pm on Saturday and got settled in.  We tried to drive to a park Sandy found that had great views of the launch pad, but it had already been closed in prep for the launch.  Sunday was mothers day and Amber and misty spent  the morning looking at houses with Sandy and in the afternoon we all went to MGM studios.  Monday was launch day, we met up around 11:30 and took the bus to the Banana Creek VIP viewing area near the Saturun V center at Kennedy Space Center.  We found a spot and setupour camera’s ansd waited for the countdown to resume.  The weather was a little cloudy and hot.  As the launch time approched is got windy, which felt good but could delay the launch.  Despite the wind the shuttle launched on time and it was beautiful as always.  I was excited to use my new zoom lens Misty got for me and see how the pics came out. You can see them in the link above.  The next day we headed home after visiting with Sandy and going back to the park to get shots of Endevour on launch pad 39a.  On the way we have a chance encounter with a Bald eagle and got some pics of him as well.  Then the long track home.  We got home around 8pm and unpacked and Amber headed to her house.  The next morning Trey and I flew to Houston to visit the Space Center there and take a backstage tour of the NASA facilities there.  We toured the Apollo era Mission Control Center, The neutral boency Center, and the vehcile mock-up lab.  Worth every bit of the tour price!  We actually got to sit at the Mission control stations and push buttons!  Very neat!   On friday we flew home and ended our trip.  It was an exciteing and exhausting trip!

It’s funny how things work out sometimes.  A couple of weeks ago Mickey at work asked me when the next shuttle mission was landing.  His family would be vacationing in Florida in a few weeks and he thought they might try to see the Shuttle land.  I looked up the mission and found that it was launching on May 31^st at 5:02pm and landing on June 14^th.  Then I noticed that the launch was set for a Saturday.  I took all of 1 second, but I decided to drive down if there was a good chance of on time lift-off.

That night I talked to Trey and proposed the trip to him.  He usually works on Saturdays but I thought it was worth a shot.  He said he would check the next day. 

About the same time I sent Chris a text message about the idea. He said he was off and thinking of drive over to see it as well.  I told him I at least would be there.

The next day Trey told me he got the day off.   All was set, nothing to do now but hope the weather would be nice and there would not be any technical issue to delay the launch. 

As the days went by the weather forecast went from bad to promising.  The Friday before the launch the weather looked good and NASA said 80% change of launch, with an additional quote “We will launch on time tomorrow”.  Trey drove to my house that night and once he arrived we soon went to bed.   We awoke about 3:30 on May 31^st and left the house by 4am ish.    After 2 potty stops and two fill-ups we arrived in Titusville, FL at Space walk park at around 11:30ish.  We quickly found a good parking space and claimed an awesome spot right on the shore of the Indian River.  We were there, spot secured, good parking space, with 6 hours to go til launch.  After lunch at a Burger King within walking distance, Chris arrived.  Soon after it started to rain, then it started to pour!  Chris was at Burger King, Misty and I in the car and Trey for some reason just stayed in the chairs we setup to mark our spot.  About 30min later the rain stopped and the sun came out.

We set back up at our spot and tried to past the time by cracking each other up and people watching as the crowd grew.  With 4+ hours to kill we just set there, trying to stay cool, applying sunscreen, joking around, snapping pictures, just killing time.  The crowd really grew as lift-off time got closer.  People were starting to setup chairs and stand in the shallow water of the river.  About 30 mins before the launch we stood up claimed our spots and got ready for the launch.   Arriving so early really paid off with the spot we got, no chance of anyone standing in front of us!  As the minutes counted down to lift off we prepared for the pictures we wanted to take.  Misty was in charge of getting zoomed in pictures.  I was going for wider angle shots, Trey setup and aimed his video camera, and Chris got in position for his shots.  It was time!

The crown erupted into a cheer as the shuttle lifted off the launch pad 12 miles away.  It climbed higher and higher in the sky as we took picture after picture.  The flames shooting out the back were extremely bright and lit up the few clouds in the sky as it passed them.  About a minute after lunch the crowd cheered again as the roar of the rockets finally made their way to us as the Shuttle began heading more north as it rose higher and higher.  After another minute or so the solid rocket boosters separated from the external fuel tank starting another round of cheers from the crowd.  Another 30 seconds or so and the shuttle was out of sight the crowd gave another round of cheers and started to quickly depart.  We immediately started looking at each other’s pictures and talking about the launch.

We left Titusville and drove to Daytona Beach for dinner, saved all our pictures to each other’s media and parted ways with Chris.  We arrived at our room in Jacksonville around 8:30 and quickly called it a night.  The next morning we were up, had breakfast and were on the road heading back home by 9:30.  We arrived back home by 3pm and started to unpack.

So 2 days, 1012 miles, four sunburns, 1 shuttle launch, and 835 pictures, later a lifelong wish had been fulfilled; it was all over.  What an exciting event.   The drive, the heat, the sunburns, and the wait it was all worth it. I would do it all again in an instant.