Husband, Katie and I just came inside after spending about 5 minutes out in the yard staring at the sky.  He has a NASA app on his I phone that alerts him when there’s the potential to see the space station going by overhead.

It’s the coolest thing.  You can find a list of when it will be overhead in your neck of the woods, even without an app, by checking out this NASA website.  There’s an alert on that site too, I don’t know how that one works…but if you have an I phone or  clone odds are you can find the app my husband uses to alert us shortly before the space station flies overhead.

Often this summer he has announced “space shuttle alert!” and we rush outside.  We’ve seen some pretty spectacular flights.  Earlier this week it was right over our heads.  Made me want to wave, because certainly if we can see them, they can see us!  Right?

What’s truly amazing to me is to know that a few minutes, sometimes moments, before we see it it will be flying over a faraway state, say Idaho..and a minute or two after it’s above us it’s out over the Atlantic.  Amazing.

Check it out.  Even if you don’t live out in the country I bet you can see the space station.  It’s a bright clear white…like a big star…but moving, depending on the angle, pretty fast.  If you’ve got kids, wake them up and go outside.  Watching the space station is a family friendly activity.

Can’t think of a nicer way to spend 2 or 3 minutes on a warm summer night.