floating in a tin can, high above the world

[Mercy]

I keep late hours. Consequently, I spend a bit of time observing the heavenly bodies, watching for meteor showers and the like. I recently began following Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut, on twitter (following as in, checking up on...I do not "do" twitter) while he was aboard the International Space Station. I am not entirely on board with certain aspects of the space programme (big surprise) but Cmdr. Hadfield's communications from the ISS made it easy to forget everything except the awesomeness of the Universe. The man has charisma, also. Cmdr. Hadfield, along with Tom Marshburn (USA) and Roman Romanenko (Rus), returned to Earth last month via a Russian Soyuz. That has more significance to some of us than others.

Lately I have developed a minor obsession with watching for the ISS. Weather permitting. The weather has been less than cooperative lately but we had perfect viewing conditions the other morning. Clear skies and a long path that lasted over five minutes. The magnitude (-3) was on par with Mars, perhaps a little brighter which made for brilliant viewing. It is worth trying to catch at least once for anyone wanting to spend a few minutes admiring what the human intellect can achieve.

[ShadowTiger]

Truly, the general spirit of Humanity is missing out on something beautiful. You weren't kidding when you mentioned charisma. From the look of it he's pretty much connecting the common social ways of the general populace to the nigh unreachable.

[Mercy]

I was reading earlier that Col. Hadfield is retiring and moving back to Canada. There are rumours he may enter politics. It seems a bit of a shame but where else does one go after working aboard the ISS?