I was standing out in my back yard this evening taking in the conjunction of Mars, Saturn, and Spica when it struck me what's about to happen at Mars. In this one view, although you can't see then, your looking at Cassini out at Saturn, the orbiters circling Mars (and of course Opportunity), and Curiosity in it's last couple of days of free flight. It seems just yesterday I was watching those wonderful images of Curiosity separating from its carrier rocket and now it has flow alllllll the way out to Mars. It's amazing that we flung this spacecraft out from the surface of the Earth, to glide across the depths of space, to intersect a specific spot on that little red point of light low in the eastern sky. This may be the last clear night we have before Sunday evening and the last time to see Mars with Curiosity in one piece closing in on its target. The view from the spacecraft must be nothing short of amazing. Hopefully, Monday morning Curiosity will be resting on its wheels on the surface of Mars.

Neat stuff...

-John