Brainripples

I haven't had time to confirm this elsewhere, but according to someone's Facebook page, Betelgeuse is likely to go nova within months. And Facebook must be almost as accurate as Wikipedia, right? Even if it doesn't cite any sources?

And we just started reading Hitchiker's to the kids, too.

ETA: Debunked here.

Thanks to this post from dcltdw, I found out right after Shabbat that the ISS would be passing almost directly overhead twenty minutes later. When I mentioned this to the kids, their reaction was to rush to put on shoes and coats, and the whole family walked over to nearby Bullough's Pond, which has a pretty much unobstructed view of the southern sky.

And, sure enough, we couldn't miss it, even though all we had was the naked eye. At 5:33 we were watching WSW, and Dave's instructions to look for something about as bright as an airplane, just moving *stupidly* fast across the sky. :) were exactly right. (The other detail: moving almost directly up.)

We were so excited, we didn't even mind the cold.

Thanks, Dave!