I had hoped to bring you video of tonight's launch of the space shuttle Endeavour. Night launches are rare and beautiful. However, although Endeavour had a successful launch, my view was completely obscured by a generally-overcast sky. So my best view was the same as yours: that provided by the television cameras. Only I'll bet none of you were actually up at this hour watching. I wouldn't have awakened just to see it on TV, but any launch is worth seeing, and even the chance of a night launch is worth arising for.
It was almost worth getting up to see another phenomenon: twilight at 2 a.m. The clouds were low and reflected back so much city light that I could have been excused for thinking I'd wandered into the Land of the Midnight Sun...were it not for the 62-degree temperature.
