Late into the night, Barbra, my daughter, and I were trying out her father's new telescope. It's the kind I think they call a refractor scope, where what you're looking at appears upside down to the viewer. We were in search of the full moon. Since a full moon is round, I always got Bs in geometry, I figured it didn't matter if it was upside down or right side up. How would we know the difference?
The Florida "no-see-ums aka flying jaws" were in our hair, tickling our necks and biting our arms, but we were not deterred. We spend an hour looking for the night light in the clear starry sky. "Why can't we find the moon in the scope, Barbra? We can see it with our naked eyes. It makes no sense."
"Don't ask me? I only want to be an astronomer. Since I don't have my license yet, I'm going to bed."
"Not me. I'm determined to find the moon." I pushed I pulled, I pointed the scope at the moon. I moved my eye close to the viewing hole, I moved my eye away. I wiggled, I waddled, I finally hit pay dirt!
I ran into the house yelling, "I found it! I found it! And I can see all the craters! Come on, Bruce. Barbra. Get up. You gotta see this! Hurry up before it moves!"
Sleepy eyed, they finally hauled themselves out of the cool cozy house into the dark muggy night. Barbra was the first to look at my triumph. "Cool, Mom. That's great. How did you do it?"
"I just stuck with it. Dog with a bone, that's me. Have a look, Brucie." And so he did.
"Ah, I hate to tell you this. I mean, you've been at it forever. You've endured the torture of all the bugs. You've-" He swatted at the creatures himself, momentarily distracted.
"What?" I asked. "What are you talking about? I found the moon in the telescope. What's the problem?"
"No problem. It's just the telescope is pointed the wrong way. You've got a perfect closeup of a tiny cement hole in the driveway."
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