Last night we watched the International Space Station go over - twice! It's really weird to think about how, after only an hour and a half, it made it all the way around the world and back overhead again! And there's people in it! Cool.

The first time it went over, I totally screwed up. I snapped three 15 second exposures of it and never showed up in any of them. The sky was still bright and I shouldn't have tried such a long exposure, even though I wanted to get the longest ISS trail picture possible with my camera. The pictures ended up overexposed to the point of not being able to even see a hint of the ISS.

The second time it went over was a much darker sky. I took two shots, but the first one I must have bumped the tripod and no ISS - only stars. The second one turned out somewhat unique, by pure coincidence. I'll explain below in the picture caption.

Just like a couple nights ago, the sky was so clear and the stars so bright, that I had a hard time stopping. Even better actually, because the other night I saw one meteor and last night there were many - I counted at least a half dozen. I finally had to force myself to go in the house and get a little rest before I had to milk the cows this morning.


The ISS's second pass on May 23rd, 2008. This picture turned out kind of unique because I took it out by the highway and all the traffic going by lit up the red pine branches! Kind of neat because the tree looks almost like daytime, yet contrasted by the dark sky, stars, and ISS trail.


Praesepe star cluster M44 (Beehive) and Mars conjunction after sunset on May 23rd, 2008. Mars is the reddish "star" in the center.


A closeup of Mars in the Beehive.


A million billion stars! And almost every one of them a host to an alien solar system, quite probably teaming with alien life.