Our Home In The Sky

This is a reprint from summer 2010.

My son called me today and told me that a UFO was reported last night over Beggs, a town about 60 miles away. He also believes in bigfoot. I try not to feed that beast, but UFO's? Possible. I'll go along with that. I would dearly love to see one. Remember what Muldar said on the X Files (I do so miss that show), "the truth is out there." Anyway, my weenies and I went out around midnight, to the darkest part of our field and waited. It was light enough to see my hand as the moon was a waxing gibbous at 77% full. Except for the bugs trilling and crickets clicking and a few bird songs, we waited quietly, listening for an odd sound or footfall. That is until a bunch of coyotes came close, howling and yipping. I was beginning to get nervous as they were coming our way, but they veered off across the field away from us. Thank goodness as I would hate having to chase and/or fight a coyote with one of my weenies in his mouth, let alone, in the dark. An owl hooted to another close by. I turned halfway around and startled as a large black form moved slightly a few feet away. It was a red cedar tree. There were glowing lights beyond some trees; I wondered if it might be a large UFO coming over the treetops, but it was only the far off lights from a town. I turned back around and jumped again at the dark form, aka cedar tree. We have had black bears in our area migrating from Arkansas. I'm quite sure I could give the bear a good run for its money on the 4 wheeler. Same for the feral hogs. So, after some time, no old Indian ghosts nor Cherokee shapeshifters appeared. Neither did panthers, feral hogs, coyotes, bears, snakes, coons, skunks or bobcats. No, not even a UFO. The thing that finally ran me off? It was the lowly mosquito.

PS ~ The picture above is the Milky Way - I think the pic is from NASA, but I can't remember now.  Our solar system sits at the edge of the Milky Way. I can see it on really dark nights.  Jupiter was visible tonight and extremely bright. It won't be this bright again until 2022. Look east after sunset and it will rise high in the sky by midnight. It will be the brightest light in the sky next to the moon.