Recently I found out that I might need to go to Africa for a week for my job. I actually wasn't too excited about it. I'd love to do a good long safari in the Rift Valley or something. But this trip would consist of being in a hotel and government offices for a few days, no time for real sightseeing and I have a lot of other projects I need to complete.

What tipped me to feeling slightly positive about it was realizing that I'd get to see Southern Hemisphere stars for the first time! Should be able to see Alpha Centauri, and the Southern Cross just peeking up. I'll have to dig out my star charts and figure out what to look for.

So yes, I'm that much of a geek. It'll just be worth sitting through two long flights so I can see a new patch of sky. That and not getting fired....

I've only been south of 30 deg N once, and that wasn't useful -- I was in Delhi, India, and the air quality was so bad I never saw a single star. On the flight out at night over Afghanistan we did see what were obviously brightly lit US bases and what appeared to be heavy weapons firing. Note: this was on a Continental 777, not military air. Apparently the likelihood of the bad guys there having SAMs that can reach 30,000 feet is low enough that commercial traffic flies right over the war zone.