The stars didn’t align last night…

But five planets did. While it wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event like next year’s total solar eclipse will be, it was worth seeing — just after sunset, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars appeared in the sky between the waning Gibbous moon and the western horizon.

Deb and I had heard that the alignment would happen this week, and that the best viewing (conditions permitting) could be had on Tuesday night. We made the short drive to Boone County Regional Airport, a dark and high point (1,364 feet AMSL) with an unobstructed view of the sky. Arriving shortly after 7:15pm, we were there in time to watch the sun slip behind the wooded slope on the far side of the runway.

The terminal parking lot was almost full, but we saw not a soul outside the whole time we were planet-gazing. We had the place all to ourselves.

As the sky darkened and the time approached when the phenomenon most likely would be visible, I took Smudge’s leash and turned the photography over to Deb. We’d brought only our cell phones, knowing that memory best preserves such a moment.

Over the next half-hour we were able to pick out Venus, then Mars and then Jupiter. Returning to the bus afterward, and using my computer to zoom in on the images Deb had captured, we believe we could see the faint shadow of Uranus behind Venus and tiny Mercury peeking out next to Jupiter.

We smiled. For us, that was enough. We’re glad we took the time.

There’s nothing special about a Wednesday, right? It’s the hump between weekends, an unremarkable midpoint — no closing the bar, no live music. Ok, maybe it’s Wing Night at Squeek’s, but truly, Wednesdays are the calendar’s Rodney Dangerfield.

Deb and I love our Wednesdays, and on this one we had something special to look forward to — our septic system on The Mountain is nearing completion. Two of the leach field’s four lines were finished today. The job should be wrapped up by Monday, and we couldn’t be happier.

We spent today at the homesite, watching the husband-and-wife team work. The grove of trees between the driveway and the road has been thinned significantly, and necessarily, something that six months ago would’ve disappointed us. Now we see possibilities.

And hey, the view from our front porch (below) will be even better.