August 28, 2008 #042 - Earth in the Night Sky

As a boy I read a lot of science fiction. One of the themes that Arthur C. Clarke wrote about in a short story titled "A Transit of Earth" was in my thoughts as I "Star Gazed". I day dreamed of what it would be like to stand on the surface of mars and look back at the earth shining in the night sky. I imagined that it would appear much as Venus does to us only not quite as bright and with a bluish tint. With a telescope I imagined that the moon would appear, making a double star providing an ever changing pattern much like Jupiter and it's moons. His story tells of such a man in the future observing the earth pass in front of the sun. NASA in a way has allowed me to live my daydream. The astoundingly long lived martian rovers have sent back a picture of earth shining above the horizon. The mars orbiters have added the moon in many pictures. The boy in me never believed this would be possible in his lifetime.

Clear Sky - Rich