original_clone (original_clone) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-08-26 22:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, john crichton, sarah manning |
Who: John, Sarah and Kira
What: Camping and the Perseids
Where: In the middle of nowhere
When: Night of August 10th
Rating: Low
Status: Complete
John was thrilled to be out of the city for a little while. It had been far too long since he’d been out camping, more years than he cared to remember in all honesty. He also got to share his passion for the stars and planets with two of his favourite people. He borrowed a large family sized tent with two separate sleeping compartments and a large section at the front. He’d set up a campfire in front of the tent with help from Kira who had helped him collect some firewood from the surrounding area. Now they were sat on some logs gazing up at the crystal clear skies. It was nice to be away from the light pollution of the city.
Sarah couldn’t actually remember ever camping, it really hadn’t been her thing when she was younger. But she was already enjoying herself. Having John’s enthusiasm helped and it was most definitely passing onto her daughter which she was very happy about. Seated on the ground in front of John, Sarah leaned back against him as they looked up at the stars. “It’s pretty incredible” she admitted, smiling up at him.
John grinned as he heard her speak, his eyes remaining skyward for a few more seconds before he turned to smile down at her. “Why thank you,” he winked, dragging his fingers through her hair and ducking down to pressed a kiss to her lips. “Have to admit, my view’s pretty spectacular too,” he murmured against her lips, before pressing his lips to hers again.
“You’ll get a better one later” she whispered back with amusement, they couldn’t do much with Kira being in the room next to theirs in the tent but once she’d gone to bed they could stay by the fire for a nice make out session at least.
“You guys are so sappy” Kira told them from where she was lying on a log, she was grinning at them though. Getting used to the displays of affection from her mum and John.
John chuckled as he pulled back from Sarah, running his fingers through her hair one more time. “Ok kiddo, so, how much do you know of the sky at night then?” he asked, leaning back and looking over at the girl.
Kira took the opportunity to tell John and her mum exactly what she knew. Most of it had come from John himself but she had learnt a few things on her own thanks to the internet and was proud of herself when she came to the end.
“That’s really good monkey” Sarah said, “I didn’t know most of that” She wasn’t ashamed to admit it, she hadn’t really been the type to listen in school though she took an interest now in what John told them.
“Yep, very good. I’m almost at a loss as to what I can teach you young padawan. You’ve got one smart cookie there,” John grinned and winked at Kira while addressing Sarah. “Ok, so what about this meteor shower then, you said it’s called the Perseid shower, do you know why that is?” he asked Kira.
“Too smart for me” Sarah said also giving Kira a wink. Sarah was glad Kira was such a smart kid, it hopefully meant for good things.
“They come from the perseus constellation” Kira said proudly, she’d looked it up before they came.
“Hey now, don’t do yourself a disservice,” John said to Sarah, sweeping his hand back over her forehead and pulling her head to look back at him. “You brought up this amazing and smart little girl,” he told her and kissed her on the forehead. “Give yourself some credit,” he looked back up to Kira. “That’s right Kira and do you know how meteor showers happen?”
Sarah smiled, taking one of John’s hands and linking their fingers. She was slowly getting used to his sticking up for her, even against her self deprecating comments.
“It’s something to do with space debris I think but I don’t remember that bit so well” Kira admitted sitting up to give John her full attention since he might be about to teach her something.
“That’s pretty much it,” John smiled across at her. “The streaks we see in the sky are actually pieces of old comets that have broken off as they make their orbits around the sun. The Earth moves into the path of these orbits and the debris burns up in our atmosphere giving us these meteor showers which we can accurately predict. The names of the showers come about because when we look up at the shower they appear to be radiating from particular constellations. In this case the constellation of Perseus,” he explained, squeezing Sarah’s fingers gently.
Kira nodded, “That’s pretty cool. So is it the satellites that helps us predict when they’re going to happen?” she asked curiously, going through everything in her head and making sense of it.
Sarah leaned against John contentedly, happy to let them talk geek for a while. It was cute to see.
“Not really, but because the orbits of the comets and planets are so regular, we can predict to a very high degree of accuracy when and where their paths are going to cross,” John told her. “Satellites and deep space imaging help us detect asteroids which are randomly flung into the solar system. Projects run by teams like Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research and Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking keep an eye on that sort of thing. It’s pretty cool,” he gave a lopsided grin as he tilted his head back to look up at the sky.
“Oh so we work out when they’re going to hit and cause debris?” Kira said, picking up her used marshmallow stick and drawing a little diagram in the dirt. “Have you worked at places like that?” she asked him, because that sounded like a pretty awesome job to her.
“Pretty much yeah, but it’s not them hitting us, it’s a trail of dust particles that the comets leave behind in space and the Earth then moves into that trail,” John smiled at her. “Those particles hit the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up giving us meteor showers like the one we’re watching tonight,” he tried to explain better. “I’ve visited and worked with them, but it’s not really my field of expertise,” he told her. “It’s exciting stuff though, they’re identifying new objects practically everyday, but I think you’ve got to have wicked attention to detail and patience,” he told the small girl..
“Oh right, yeah” Kira said with a nod, “I guess an actual comet would be a little more than a shower” she grinned. “Maybe that’s not for me then, I’m not so patient sometimes. Uncle Felix says I get that from mum”
“Your Uncle Felix is too cheeky for his own good” Sarah said with a fond smile.
John chuckled at the two of them. “Patience can be learned but it can be difficult and with your mother’s temperament that could be a very long road,” he joked cheekily, leaning down to press a kiss to Sarah’s head. “There’s nothing wrong with that of course, but sitting in the same lab day after day could be a little tedious. Although you would get to visit some of the coolest places in the world, like Hawaii, if you wanted to work with deep space imaging and radio telescopes,” he told her.
“I’m surrounded by such cheeky people” Sarah quipped with a smile, “Oh really? Feel free to work in Hawaii monkey, as long as you take your mum with you” she added with a wink.
Kira grinned, “As if you wouldn’t come anyway” she replied.
“You wouldn’t have it any other way,” John smile at Sarah with a little wink, his fingers still carding through her hair. “And don’t forget, if you go to work in Hawaii, you not only get some of the world’s best telescopes, but you also get volcanoes and they’re pretty awesome too,” he grinned at Kira.
“Maybe” Sarah said with a grin, her hand squeezing his knee where it was resting.
“My friend at school was going to Italy over summer break and she was going to go and see Mount Vesuvius” Kira said, “That looks awesome. Have you been?” she asked John, knowing her mother hadn’t.
“No, not yet Kira, but it’s on my bucket list,” John told her, leaning back a bit to look up at the stars as he thought about it. “Are there any places you two would like to go?” he asked curiously. Maybe he’d be able to arrange a trip for them over Christmas or something, he thought to himself.
“I want to see the Grand Canyon” Kira said, “Mum said we might be able to go sometime, and she wants to climb the Statue of Liberty”
“I do” Sarah said, “And Australia, that’s the biggest dream. One day I will go to Sydney and see that bridge and opera house” she grinned, “But right now, you need to go to sleep and actually dream young lady” she directed towards Kira.
“You know you can walk to the top of that bridge, right? But by all accounts you need to be as fit as an Olympic athlete to get up there,” John joked, mentally cataloguing all the things the girls had said. “Yep, I think that’s enough stargazing for now, if you guys had fun this time we could look at doing it again perhaps?” he offered.
“Mum would do it” Kira said, “Because she’s so stubborn” grinning at her mum Kira stood and gave them both a goodnight hug.
“I think that would be a great idea” Sarah said to John, “It’s been really fun”
“Great, well we can plan something for the next one then,” John grinned, hugging Kira as she said good night. Life was good, John thought to himself as he watched his two girls get settled for bed.