Mark of Odin: The Awakening

Chapter 7: Confessions

37º 18' 09.64" North, 115º 07' 41.11" West
Ochoco National Park, Oregon. The United States
Sunday, 14 October 2012
06:00 GMT+1

It was a beautiful night, with clear skies and a gentle southerly breeze. Nothing but peace and quiet in every direction. The precise reason why Charles Bradway and other amateur astronomers came to Ochoco National Park to observe the stars. Famous among American astronomers, the park hosted the Oregon Star Party each year where hundreds of people gathered together to gaze at the firmament.

Bradway was a science teacher at Bend Senior High School in Bend, Oregon and had loved astronomy ever since he was a teenager. He took his hobby extremely seriously and had spent a considerable amount of money on his equipment. Bradway was also closely involved in the online community of astronomers and had even succeeded in being accepted by the Friends of NASA Astronomical Society. The FNAS, as it was known by its members, was a group of novices and professionals who were authorised to contact NASA if they believed they had made a new discovery. Once they reported a new celestial body, a technician at the government agency analysed the data and material and, if it wasn't rejected, the information was forwarded on to a NASA observatory who would verify the discovery. The Minor Planet Center coordinated this process and was responsible for cataloguing all discoveries.

So far, tonight had been perfect: dark skies and the ideal atmospheric conditions for observing the night sky. Bradway felt lucky. Every weekend, weather permitting, he packed up his equipment and drove sixty miles to his favourite observation spot in Ochoco. He had needed to wrap up well tonight; there was something of a nip in the air by this time of year, especially so far away from civilization. He thought longingly of warming himself by a campfire, but the light would have interfered with his star gazing. And the one reason he came all this way was to enjoy skies that were unaffected by light pollution.

He sipped hot coffee from a thermos flask and glanced over his equipment: an eight foot telescope connected to a high resolution camera and a small laptop computer. Next to it was a second, three foot telescope. He normally used the smaller one to decide which area of space he wanted to observe before swapping to the large one. In his heart of hearts, Bradway longed to make a new discovery. He would happily settle for a minor asteroid, just something small that could be named after him. But in all the years he had been watching the stars he had never had any luck. He didn't really mind. After all, he had met some great people through his hobby, men and women who were just as crazy as he was about the stars. And he had been fortunate enough to observe some truly spectacular sights.

By now he had established a set routine. Before leaving home he would mark a grid on a star chart to determine the area he wanted to observe. Then, in the park, he would start by making an initial exploration with his small telescope to narrow down any points of interest, using the main telescope to study these areas in depth and take detailed photographs. The walls of his study were papered with photographs he had taken of comets, constellations, planets and other phenomena that caught his eye.

Tonight he planned to take some shots of celestial bodies located on the edge of the solar system. Everyone knew that space was packed with countless uncatalogued asteroids and comets travelling through its vastness. This 'dark' region was a good area for hunting them down; astronomers who found something here had a decent chance of being the first to discover it. A computer programme linked his telescope to his camera; it would automatically start taking photographs if any visual anomalies were detected in his field of view. So even if he wasn't watching directly, he could still observe and catalogue anything significant that passed in front of the telescope. He used the laptop to access an online astronomy database with contributions by thousands of similar volunteers. Whenever Bradway detected an object he always ran his sighting through the database to see whether or not anyone else had reported it first.