Defrost me and hand me a latte please?

This morning I was up before the sun was.

Betcha didn't think that I could do it, eh? When has a teenager willfully set her alarm for 4:30 AM?

I... um... can't exactly figure it out either.

For the entire semester, my astronomy professor has been threatening to hold a constellation session at 4am. Yesterday, he announced that there would be one at 5 ("To give you all an extra hour of sleep"). I loved the constellation session that I went to a few weeks ago and kind of wanted to see what the sky was like when it was truly at its darkest (in a strange and "I know I'll hate myself in the morning, but it'll probably be worth it" kind of way.) So I went.

It was even more fun than last time. We had less than half as many people as we did the first time - only 17. Because of the small group (and the fact that it was 5am. If you were there, you wanted to be there.) we were able to move through more constellations and have a sort of mini-lecture. We all huddled together and shivered in our boots and identified Orion, Taurus, Canis major and minor, and found Polaris again. (Needless to say, it was in the same spot as last time). We looked at the Orion nebula (a cluster of some 200 "new" stars... but you can only see 4 or so through the cloud) the Andromeda galaxy (which kind of looks like a bit of fuzz on the lens) and Saturn (you can see its rings!)

The only downside to the whole experience is that Texas is attempting to overturn summer and make it colder for a bit. Pre-sunrise, it was about 40 or 45 degrees and it was freezing without any kind of sunlight to warm you up. After the constellation session ended at 6:30, I hopped on my bike and dashed home to crawl back into bed to attempt to defrost. It reminded me of the aftereffects Chuy's christmas parade that Mom, Duncan, and I walked in... because no amount of blanket cover could make me warm. All I could think of was a down comforter and how wonderful it would be to own one. I think I shall invest.

Someone hand me a latte? I think I need something warm and caffeinated.