I lived for years in a city where about the only things you could see in the night sky were the Moon and and maybe Venus for a few minutes. I remember driving out of town once to see Mars when the news said it was going to be especially close and bright.

That might be why I appreciate the “dark sky” that I can gaze up into now so much. When I go to Town Council and Planning Commission meetings, it’s something that comes up fairly frequently. Builders are required to use lights that are fully shielded against the night sky these days. (I only wish we could get Utah’s Department of Transportation to work with us on their horrible street lights.) I get the feeling sometimes that a lot of people are not quite sure that it’s worth it. I think it is.

My wife and I bundled up and sat in the dark morning today at 5:44 AM to watch the Space Shuttle chase the International Space Station across the sky. As they disappeared behind the peak of Bridge Mountain, I could still feel a sense of awe. If you would like to share a science and national pride momement with your family, you might want to consider doing it.

The Shuttle can be seen one last time before it lands tomorrow (Wednesday Nov 07) at 5:56 AM. It will appear just above the northwest horizon and disappear again just above the northeast horizon. If you see it, you can’t mistake it. It’s brighter than Venus and moves across the sky faster than any jet plane.

You can see the ISS just about every night. Check the schedule at NASA’s “Sightings” page. (http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/) They have a schedule customized just for the St. George area. If you stay up just a bit longer, the ISS will cross the sky tomorrow at 6:07 AM from above the western horizon to the the north-northeast horizon.

That’s why some of us would very much like our neighbors to avoid lighting up the night.