Last night I had a short chat with Sparkling and she told me in an excited voice she saw the Space Station. I must admit to being a little incredulous to this happening. She then said if it is still there when I next go up I can see it to. Of course this didn't make a great deal of sense to me, being a man. Sparkles was so overcome by seeing the space station she then had to go and wake Rock Chick up so she to could look up into the night sky and see it. I must admit my doubting Thomas was really kicking in. The reason is, if the thing up there was visible then surely there would of been some kind of TV announcement so everyone could rush outside and have a look. In the back of my mind I stopped myself from saying it was more likely she had seen a flying doughnut with a cherry on top than the Space Station. But I didn't, because maturity has led me to the most knowledgeable thing of all, which always be very careful when doubting a woman, if she happens to be right then you are in pretty big trouble. So my doubt was unspoken. Further, I also ran out the front door and looked up into the night sky. But London unlike the East Coast of Scotland is positioned in a different place on the globe. Also there was a scattering of clouds so if there was anything up there it would of been difficult to find.
My next option was to check on the Internet and see if there was a map tracking the International Space Station. Which it so happened there was. I checked it out and it indicated at that moment the ISS was above Spain. Well about an hour had passed since Sparkles had seen it, and it was travelling a few thousand miles per hour which means it don't stand still for long, relatively speaking it don't stand still at all. The NASA map showed a set of three wavey lined routes the ISS may have taken, but not one of them was near the UK. So I wondered whether it may have been some other satellite and found another set of maps for various satellites again none of these were anywhere near Scotland. My call finished with Sparkles and I puzzled over what had taken place. Sparkles was going to have Rock Chick photograph it next time it just happened to be hanging about. Like a Christmas light no doubt.
About another forty minutes or so passed and it was getting close to bedtime. So yet again I checked the NASA web site. I found a field where it was possible to put a post code in and see when the most likely night would be to see the ISS. So I entered it. Blow me down and stuff my arse with a pineapple. Feck, the results showed that very evening had was the best time to see the ISS from Scotland. I checked the map again and something must of happened to NASA because it now showed the direction of the ISS as just clipping Cornwall area of the UK. This means, the map must of been wrong, the route had been re calculated and therefore it would quite probable Sparkling had actually seen the ISS and not a doughnut with a cherry on top. I'm glad I didn't vocally disbelieve what Sparkles said and only thought it. Except now she's likely to read this blog and will hold me to account next time she sees me.
Then I sure hope she has no pineapples at hand.
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