Gazing at the Night Sky

The International Space Station was visible from our yard this evening. I'd never seen it before. It moves REALLY fast! We only saw it for about 3 minutes as it jetted across the sky.

I never really liked astronomy. In fact, looking at pictures of the earth from space kind of freaks me out. But back when we lived in Maryland, we used to occasionally go to the Naval Observatory in DC to look through their 12-inch Refracting Telescope. On one of our visits we were able to see Saturn. I had seen it in science books, of course, but seeing it in real life was one of the most amazing experiences. I had no idea how it would astonish me. Below is a picture very similar to what we saw. It was taken with the same telescope we were able to use to see Saturn.