Did I Meet A Relative Last Night?

We went out again to our favorite night sky viewing spot to see if we could catch a glimpse of the comet.  There was another party there who soon left after sundown.  We went through the routine of getting out the camera, tripod, binoculars, flashlight and jackets.  We got settled in to do some night viewing of our spectacular sky.  Again the weather was gorgeous. 

Shortly after setting up, a young father of two rambunctious boys asked if they could join us. “Of course” was our reply.  The boys were so cute with their school papers of where to look and their binoculars. Then another father and son duo showed up, but with a $3000.00 telescope.  We had so much fun looking through the big telescope and then watching the little boys reactions, as they had never look through one before, it was priceless. Words could not describe the looks on their faces or their dad’s face. 

Ed and Ben Averyt had the big scope.  How wonderful of them to share. Dave was able to get some great shots of the comet which you could not see with the naked eye.  Once we figured out where it was Dave was able to track it by taking pictures of the night sky and the moon.  The pictures as you will see are awesome and to think that we will never see it again is somewhat mind blowing.  We saw it at 8:40p.m., below the moon on the right side and it tracked upward past the moon to the left.  It is difficult to see but the digital camera did a great job of catching it. 



Comet below the moon 8:40p.m.

Conversations started to get rather strange.  As we were discussing small stuff, Dave asked Ben where he went to school to which he said was Mount St. Mary’s Catholic school near downtown Oklahoma City, to which Dave said that our next door neighbor was the principal there.  How fun is that.  The evening rocked on and then the comet was gone. 

Comet above moon 8:58p.m. By 9:10 it was gone.

Ed, Ben's dad, is a stay-at-home dad due to a medical condition, asked to share information as he would like to get together again sometime with all of us to view the night sky out at Lake Thunderbird.  I exchanged information and then Ben wanted to give us their email address, when I looked at the last name again, bell and whistles went off in my head like a casino machine.  AVERYT!!! Oh, my gosh!  that was the last name of my great, great grandfather.  Ed asked where he was from and I replied “Texas” as that was what my grandmother had told me.  Ed said it couldn’t be his family as all of them were from Alabama.  We bid each other Adieu and left on the promise we would hook up again.

I kept thinking on it...when I got home I got on my Ancestry.com account and looked up my great, great grandfather.  Jonathan H. Averyt was born in Dallas County, Alabama!  Could it be?  Are we long lost cousins?  A chill went through me.  I emailed Ed and gave him the information.  He said that his grandmother was a big genealogy person so maybe she will be able to find something out in their family records.  Wouldn't that be a hoot!  They say there is only six degrees of separation between all of us. Hmmmm something to think about for sure.

664 Days and counting…