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reflections in the water. One night the Mississippi River flashed into view, and the reflected moonlight flowed downstream as if Tom Sawyer tied a candle to his raft, [[strikethrough]] then sent it floating down the river.[[/strikethrough]]

The most spectacular sights from orbit may be the magnificent displays of lightning that seem to ignite the clouds at night. [[strikethrough]]Everyone on [[/strikethrough]] On Earth we see lightning from below clouds; astronauts see lightning from above. From orbit, when diffused by clouds, bolts of lightning appear like bursting balls of light from orbit. Sometimes, when a storm extends hundreds of miles, it looks like a trans-continental bucket brigade is tossing fireworks from cloud to cloud. [[left margin note: suggests water not fire]]

As [[strikethrough]] we [[/strikethrough]] the Shuttle races the sun around the Earth, we pass from day to night and back again during a single orbit [[strikethrough]] hour and a half [[/strikethrough]]--hurtling into darkness, then bursting into daylight. [[strikethrough]]Describing the orbital sunsets is impossible--at least it is for me [[/strikethrough]]I cannot describe an orbit at sunset. It's like trying to describe a solar eclipse: the force and drama of the event are felt in the words of the poets, not in the equations of astronomers. Orbital sunsets carry (emerge with?) that same magic. Not even [[strikethrough]]our pictures [[/strikethrough]] photographs capture the spectacle, as the sun's disappearance unleashes spectacular blue and orange bands along the horizon. An an astronaut sees this once every orbit! In orbit, this happens every hour and a half. [[right margin note: [[strikethrough]]clock work miracle [[/strikethrough]]

I once heard someone (not a astronaut ^ but what?) suggest that it's possible to imagine what spaceflight is like by simply extrapolating from experiences on an airplane. All you have to to, he said, is mentally raise the airplane 200 miles,