"To the moon, Alice!"

I saw something the other night that I don't think I will ever forget. Approximately nineteen minutes after liftoff in Florida the spaceship Endeavour passed over Ireland!

It was a partly cloudy evening around eleven o'clock.... I was working in the office when I suddenly remembered that the space shuttle was going to pass overhead. I jumped up grabbed the camera and went outside to stand in the grass and look west. Sure enough - just as the radio had promised - I noticed a bright star appear over the blue horizon. I say that it was a star, but in reality it was probably three times brighter than any star I had ever seen. I ran to the house and scared Dee half to death by banging on the windows and yelling "I see it! I see it!". I then turned to see it become brighter and brighter as it climbed higher and higher in the night's sky. Suddenly a bright orange star become visible underneath it and slowly began to move away on a lower trajectory. I instantly knew that the orange blaze had to be the massive fuel tank being dropped from the shuttle. I scrambled to take a couple of pictures, but didn't want to loose the moment of seeing something truly amazing. Dee and I stood there in awe and watched the two objects blaze their way across the heavens. They eventually disappeared in the east.... what a sight!

Later that night I downloaded the pictures... they in no way captured what we saw... so... sorry... no pictures... you will just have to use your imagination.