The Ural Mountains
of Southern Russia
For once, the weather report was correct. No fog, no clouds, just a crystal-clear night sky spreading from horizon to horizon. It was perfect conditions for a successful evening, Oleg thought while he carried the bags to the family's little datja, a small log cabin that belonged to the family for generations. He was soaked in sweat after the three-hour bike trip, but he didn’t care. He was supposed to be by himself in the cottage all weekend, so it didn’t matter if he smelled a little.
Maybe he could take a trip to the lake tomorrow for a swim. This time of year, the water was of course ice cold, but at the same time he liked the refreshing feeling of diving into the chilly water. But it had to wait. Right now, the most important thing was to take advantage of the clear sky. The weather could change quickly up here in the mountains, so there was no time to waste.
His father had drawn electricity into the cottage a couple of years ago, but in spite of that Oleg lit his accompanying kerosene lamp and put it on the table on the porch. The lamp simply fitted better with the old cottage, and the warm restless light was more appealing than the cold light from the fluorescents in the ceiling. He wouldn’t need that much light anyway. The less light the better actually, he thought, and started unpacking his stuff. He put the laptop on the table next to the lamp and then a notebook, a can of Coca Cola and a packet of sandwiches beside it.
After that he unlocked the old oak door and carried the rest of the stuff into the cabin. It was completely black inside, so he had to turn on the light after all, and when his eyes got used to the strong glow, he saw it in the corner next to the couch, his dearest item. Okay, it wasn’t really his, it belonged his grandfather. But his grandfather had passed away five years ago, no one else in the family was particularly interested in it.
There were, of course, much more modern telescopes than his Skywatcher-760P. It was at least thirty years old, maybe more, he didn’t really know.
Anyway, it worked flawlessly, and if he connected it to the laptop, he could always run it against the latest updates of the sky. When he used it for the first time two years ago, he watched the planets and the moon night after night. In the beginning, the moon especially interesting and during really clear evenings he had even been able to distinguish the outlines of the moon base. But now he had no interest in the moon anymore. Staring at the moon was for beginners and amateurs, he thought while carefully dragging out the heavy telescope on the porch. Now he had more important things to focus on.
A year ago, he had read in a newspaper about a competition for amateur astronomers. The task was to find the most undiscovered asteroids in two weeks, and it was not the first prize of two thousand Unitas that led him to engage in the project. Instead, he was driven by the possibility of being the first one to discover something that no other human had seen before.
He needed to read a lot of facts about how to go about it. Among other things he had to find out which software was needed, and then had to learn how to systematically search different areas of the sky. He then spent two weekends up in the cabin and when it was time to submit the results, he had succeeded in finding no less than four objects between ninety and two hundred meters.
Unfortunately, it was not enough for the victory, but a second place and a thousand Unitas inspired him to continue. And during the past year he had spent almost all his spare time searching the sky for undiscovered objects. He now participated in countless online forums and he had recently qualified for NASA's Amateur Asteroid Watch (NAAW).
In the past year, he had found thirty-seven new objects, one of them was actually considered as a potential danger to Earth. Oleg-n023, as it was called, was a lump of about forty-five meters which had a thirty percent risk of hitting the Earth in year 2343. Nothing to worry about in this lifetime in other words. But the discovery had made him realize that there could actually be other more dangerous objects out there in the dark space. Objects that could cause great damage even in the near future. Sure, the risk was minimal, but the risk wasn’t zero. Only fifteen years earlier, a thirty-five-meter-boulder had struck outside the southern coast of Australia and caused devastating tsunamis. Luckily, the damages and the human losses were quite small. Had it hit a more densely populated area, perhaps hundreds of thousands would have died instead of a few hundred.
Oleg connected the telescope to an electrical socket and then turned it on. He heard the quiet buzzing of the engine when it positioned itself after the latest setting. However, he immediately rebooted it and the telescope quickly straightened out in its default position.
He looked out over the landscape. It was completely dark now and the fantastic Milky Way stretched across the sky. Over the years, his dad had cut down most of the trees in front of the cabin, and because it was built on a slope, the trees that were further away didn’t disturb the view. He opened the Coke and took a sip while he thought about how to plan the evening's searching for new objects.
It was fortunately new moon, so he shouldn’t be particularly disturbed by the light from it. After a while, he decided to aim high and look outside the normal plane where most asteroids usually were located. Although the chances of finding something of interest decreased drastically, the chance of actually finding something undiscovered increased, as most amateur astronomers, for natural reasons, weren’t looking there. But the asteroids paths were unpredictable and even though he had found some “drifters” before, he would probably have to work hard all weekend before finding something.
He went over to the laptop and set up an area that he had searched a few months earlier. There were a number of small spots from that scan that could be of interest. If they had moved out of their previous position, he would register them at NAAW and let the experts examine them more closely.
The telescope quickly found the first spot. He put his eye to the ocular. Yeah, maybe, he thought while he was waiting for the coordinates to transfer to the laptop. The program would compensate for earlier time and the position of the Earth, and then it was easy to determine if the point had moved since last time. It didn’t take many seconds to get the results. But unfortunately, it was nothing. Just a very distant star.
Oh well, he thought. I can’t expect a stroke of luck every time. He quietly and methodically transferred the coordinates for the next spot and looked in the ocular again. He could see it clearly. Probably just another star, he thought and transferred the measurement to the computer.
His heart started beating faster when he saw the result. Already on the second attempt, not bad, he thought smiling. There was no doubt, a very clear movement of the object. It must mean that the object is relatively close to Earth. He connected to the largest forum for amateur astronomers; "Watchers of the night sky", and then went to the thread for Near Earth Objects. Before he uploaded the file, he named the object Oleg-n038. Then he repeated the same procedure on NAAW's site.
I knew that it would be a successful weekend, he thought and leaned back in the chair and took a big sip of his Coke.