Kyzyl-Adyr sky

Tonight at 19:41 the International Space Station passed over Kyzyl-Adyr from the south-west to the north-east, brighter than Venus, in about four minutes. I got the timetable from the Internet at the Attelkom club in the bazaar for 3 som an hour, and wrote the minutes on the blackboard in the morning. Twenty-two children came to the roof, in their school clothes, many without coats.

"It's a house in the sky," Emil said. (Aidana's little brother, 7th class.) "Six people live in it and don't pay rent."

I wanted a new eyepiece, a 6 mm one, from a shop in Moscow. In February it cost 190 som with the shipping. Then in March the som was moved from 5 to 8.40 for the dollar and the same eyepiece is now 320. I do not understand money, I understand glass, but I know a thing is dearer.

The club collects. A father from the market brought 30 som in coins in a handkerchief. I put them in the box.

Our last club meeting before the summer: Saturn small and yellow in the west after sunset, a thin Moon near it, nineteen children on the roof and a cold wind. I gave each of them the same homework for the holidays: lie on your back one night a week and look. I promise the Perseids in August, with a new Moon. The best night of the year.

They said goodbye in the yard in the usual way, by pushing each other.

For people who ask what we use: a refractor, 80 mm aperture, focal length 900, 1978. It shows the four moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn (small, but rings), the craters of the Moon, and a very good Pleiades. Nothing else we need.

The mount wobbles, so when the wind blows we hold it with our hands, two children on each leg. The Moon through this telescope is a face in a mirror. Last week a pupil of the 7th class said "ah!" and took a step back, and nobody laughed.