Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

From June 28th through July 3rd, I had the privilege of being on a raft on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. This was part of a family trip “for the guys.” On a trip put together by my father-in-law Allan, his two sons, me (a son in law), my three sons, two other grandsons, one grandson-in-law, and one great grandson spent five days and five nights on the Colorado River. These blog posts are part of the story.

I live in the busy Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. Like most suburbs of major cities, we have lots of lights. For those people who like to look at the stars, this is known as light pollution.

One of the reasons I love to visit my mother in rural southeastern Louisiana is that there are few man-made lights – little light pollution. That allows me to look at all the stars and do one of my favorite yet rarely enjoyed hobbies – viewing satellites. That is kind of odd, the man-made lights are in the way of watching man-made satellites, but that is the nature of the hobby.

The International Space Station is the easiest object to view orbiting the earth. It is so big now that only the moon is easier to see in the night sky. All you have to do is find the right time and direction to watch. This is one web site that provides that information. But that is too easy.

What I really like to do is look for other satellites. That requires almost no man-made light and a lot of patient staring into the night sky. The floor of the Grand Canyon would be a perfect place to be and stare up. But it was not that easy. Several problems:

• a couple of cloudy nights
• one raining night
• eyes worn tired by the sun of the day
• eyes worn really tired by the sun of the day

We reached Friday night, and I had not seen a satellite fly over. We gathered in the camp circle of chairs after dinner while Jake told us what was to happen on the morning that we left the river. I was tired and could barely listen. I leaned back in my chair and stared in numbness up into the night sky. There it was – small and dim, but was moving almost directly overhead from canyon wall to canyon wall.

There, just then, sitting dead tired in that circle of chairs, one of my wishes for the rafting trip was fulfilled. I saw a satellite fly over.

I smiled. In moments I was asleep in the cot.