The Aerial View

Had a window seat for the first time in ages on my flight back from Phoenix. I'm not the best flyer these days, so I haven't really missed it. Besides...lately, I usually sleep as much as I can, so don't see much anyway.

This time, however, I woke up about 45 minutes out from Reagan National Airport, and flipped up the window shade. Lush green terrain spread out below. Trees. Mountains. Valleys. I tried to guess about where we were, and started looking around for landmarks. A minute later, I stared down at the ground. There was a large, white, circular structure waayyyyyy below me. The pilot announces that we're starting into our final approach, and coming down from 26,000 feet--so I KNOW we're wayyy up there. I stare harder.

Below me is the Green Bank Telescope--the huge radiotelescope in West Virginia. I can't believe its that clear from the air. I try to convince myself I'm wrong--if it were the GBT, then there'd be another smaller dish just...to...the... Yup. That little circular dot would be a smaller (much smaller), older radiotelescope dish. Sure enough, I recognize the entire facility--the line of various sized telescope dishes, the business and dorm buildings, etc. I look back as the plane flies on, and the structure of the GBT becomes REALLY visible--it is definitely the GBT. It was too far away to show up on my camera (I tried), but I'll post a photo from my meeting at Green Bank. I still can't believe how clear it was from that high up. TOTALLY identifiable. VERY cool stuff. I'm glad I had a window seat. I also can't believe its less than 40 minutes by flight from National Airport--that was a loooonnnngggg 4+ hour drive from home, on narrow, windy scary mountain roads. Ah, some days I wish for a real gryffin...

Then, when we came in for a landing, we came right down the Potomac, over Georgetown University's stadium and buildings, past Georgetown itself, saw the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Capitol building...everything. It was like a postcard view of Washington, D.C.--and followed by a very smooth touch-down. All in all, a nice trip home.