ISS and Shuttle Flyby

I sat outside waiting for the ISS and Shuttle flyby that would take place at 7:44pm and come out of the southwest with a magnitude of -3.1 which would rival Venus! I called Mac and Ron Dehart up to let them know. Kevin called just before they flew over. He wouldn’t see them from Tucson because of rain clouds. There they were in the sky right on time! It looked to me as if the Shuttle had departed the ISS and the separation grew as they came overhead. Wow what a sight! I had them in the telescope for a bit but decided to just use the binoculars. As I described the flyby to Kevin I thought to myself that there are bags of water just like me aboard enclosed in cylinders under pressure in orbit around our planet! The night wasn’t done yet! As I was looking out towards Cygnus in the Milky Way I saw seven satellites within an hour until the Moon popped up to wash away the stars. That was more than I’ve ever seen in one sitting. Some nights I only see one or maybe two, and sometimes not a one. This was a magical night for me!