Thursday, September 22, 2005

waning gibbous...

Went to the planetarium today after the orchard. All that bright hot late September sunshine gathered in a bowl of a valley through which a river lazily sauntered. I would like to report that the water wore a coat of sparkles and the meadows a dress of dew, but I'd be lying. The river was nearly stoppered with tall weeds and only a monarch butterfly or two distractedly fluttered in a windless and dry field. Still, one could easily see -- setting aside the well-burdened apple trees, subtracting the cider, the peanut candy two for a whatever, the hayride, the petting zoo/corn maze and so forth, the paved road and the leaning barn, returning the ducks to their undomesticated past, and willing mechanical things to be silent -- why this land would be worth fighting for.

And then to the planetarium. The kid's been to the planetarium three times in two weeks. Steve the Star Guy showed her pictures of the Mars Rover and the pictures of Mars yesterday. We'd seen Mars on Saturday night -- if you're up late
tonight, you can look over by the moon and see Mars again. And somewhere on it, there's this teeny little three-footish
sized pair of landers doing their totally unexpected things. And we get to see it in real time, thanks to the internet. Sometimes the littlest things bring out the geek-girl in me.

Here. Look for yourself.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/

1 comment:

imfunnytoo said...

....little rovers...

very cool.