Personal Essays

The stars for most of us appear as fixed points of light in a vast dome above us. Its patterns seemingly unchanged for generations. Apart from the wandering stars, or planets, we see them as they are night to night, year to year. Their placement relative to us only changes because the Earth rotates around an axis like a spinning top.

But almost every night one may see something spectacular. These stars are man-made, hurled into space by giant fire sticks we lovingly call rockets. They are satellites. Circling the earth they quietly go about doing a singular job. Many are small and with a keen eye you might see one grazing across the stars.

Then there are the Iridiums, a vast array of communications satellites with large solar wings. Predictably, they seem to appear from the shadows and then flare in brightness from obscurity to the splendor of Venus or sometimes the crescent moon. And then just as quickly they fade into the Earth’s shadow. The spectacle lasts a mere half minute.