The Barnyard Constellation

Posted by Dick McNally
on Monday, December 4, 2006

I had a flying instructior once - his name was John - who told about some of the darkest skies in the United States - over North Dakota.

John was flying cross-country in his Cessna 172 at night.  It was so dark that he couldn't see the horizon. The yard lights on the farms below looked like stars.

All of a sudden the cookie tin John had in the back seat started floating up into the air. Then John realized he had so confused the yard lights with the stars that he was starting to turn the airplane upside down. He immediately turned to his instruments and got the airplane under control so he didn't fly down into the "stars."

Looking for good seeing? Go up to North Dakota, where the farm-yard lights get confused with the stars!

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