I was just out doing some quick errands, when I happened to look up in the sky and saw this interesting bright light whizzing almost overhead in the evening sky. It was around 6:30 this evening, and here in the middle latitudes it was already dark. Whatever it was, it was moving at a good clip and the light was beginning to fade away, first I thought it may have been an aircraft making an approach or circling the local airport (I was only about a mile from PWM), but there was no way, it also made a quick flash before it began to dim, so my thoughts turned to it being a satellite. Then I was wondering what we had big enough that I’d be able to see with the naked eye, and then it hit me, it had to have been the ISS!

I came home, went to N2YO.com and punched in the ISS. I turned on the checkbox that draws the trajectory lines, and sure enough! The thing had just gone above my head and was now over Africa. Sweet. You know, I’ve been wanting to catch a glimpse of that thing careening along overhead for a long time now, and every time I think of it I’m either nowhere near a computer, it’s daylight, or it’s not coming anywhere near where I am.

Since I’m here in Maine, I kinda wonder how many people from the sticks called it in as a UFO.

Something I thought of is that somewhere there’s a picture of a fishing net that my father and I hung off a tree. Above it, there was a paper sign that simply said “SKYLAB” with an arrow pointing down into said net. I may even be in the picture, I don’t remember. If any of my family members are reading this, could you please send that along to me?

One last fleeting thought I had was that maybe it was this thing… I have been having some pretty bad luck lately, maybe I will be a human catcher’s mitt for it. Another part of big brother is burning up in the atmosphere. And it won’t be missed.

[Update, 2/4/2008: I pasted in the wrong image! I had one with the great circle lines, but in my haste, I uploaded the wrong one and deleted the correct one, my apologies!]