We went stargazing last night.  It was great, looking at Orion, craters on the moon, Jupiter and oh, so many stars.  A great way to spend an evening.  It was a public star party which meant that lots of people and their kids were at the observing site.  This is good for everyone to see.  2011 is NASA’s “Year of the Solar System” and that is a great theme for kids (and adults) to learn by.  The theme for February is “Small Bodies, Big Impacts”, focusing on comets, asteroids and meteors.    

While warming up with a Watkins Chai Latte after sky obserbing we were reading about NASA’s latest endeavor—seventeen years in the making, called SOFIA.  It is actually a Boeing 747 airplane with a 17 ton telescope in it.  SOFIA stands for Stratosheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy—creating a flying observatory able to fly anywhere in the world for scientific studies.    The intent of the project is to serve as a test platform for space based instrument prototypes and techniques and will be a hands-on educational and training facility for up and coming generations of educators and scientists.  It’s quite the ride!  The aricraft istself has a long, prestigious history, coming from the Pan Am World Airways in 1977.  

Although Pan Am usually named its aircraft after famous clipper ships, they gave this aircraft a special name – the Clipper Lindbergh – in honor of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh.  Lindbergh’s widow, Ann Morrow Lindbergh, personally christened the aircraft and officially placed it into service on May 6th, 1977-the 50th anniversary of his history-making first solo flight from New York to Paris in 1927.

In 1997 NASA purchased the aircraft to refit it for the flying astronomical observatory.  I’m sure Lindbergh would have been thrilled!

Happy Sky observing along with Happy Valentines’ Day from the Natures’ Heritage staff!