I saw the International Space Station on the way to work!

I freaking knew it! And, no, my commute is not that long.

I've been a casual stargazer long enough to recognize, after a brief moment of squinting, when something overhead is a man-made satellite. It travels across the sky as a point moving at a constant speed in a straight line. Sometimes it flashes as the sucker rotates or tumbles, but most of the ones that I have seen look like stars on a mission. It's always a thrill, but I've always wished that I could know what it is I'm looking at.

This morning, what I saw moved like a satellite but shone like a planet. It was huge, it had to be. Either that or insanely reflective. I was walking to my bus stop at 5:30, like I do every morning I intend to be productive, and there it was. A planet where there should not be planets. Well, at least not a planet that bright. It was like Venus, but high in the sky. Oh, and bookin'. I thought, "Space station."

As a youth, I was delighted to see any satellite. It was the type of thing that I didn't think most people recognized. But there was no way, when I was in high school in the early 1990s, to check up on what I had seen and identify it. Now there is, and I am happy to report my first confirmed sighting of a specific man-made satellite!

(ISS sighting times for Atlanta)

See that! I can even know that, actually, I was running a minute behind when I saw it! What a cool way to start my day!

Also, yay!

HJ