“You reckon that’s a star?” questioned my hunting partner about a bright looking object in the dark, predawn January western sky.
“Dunno! But it looks like one, just seems to bright compared to all the rest. Maybe it’s a plane flying toward us.” I replied after taking a sip of coffee and continuing to drive westward toward a new property we hoped to hunt that morning, sort of a test hunt to see if we were indeed interested in joining the lease.
“Sure is bright. Why don’t you stop the truck and let’s take a look at it with our binoculars. Something just doesn’t seem right about it. It’s way to bright and yet it doesn’t appear to be moving.” He suggested. I followed orders and slowed down then came to a complete stop so we could get a better look at what was beginning to intrigue us. Before we broke out our binocs my partner thought for a moment then said, “Might be one of those weather balloons, way up high, or maybe the Border Patrol as got another eye in the sky.” With that we both stepped out of the pickup walked in front of it to stare through our 10x binocs at the object high in the sky that was brightly illuminated.
“Don’t reckon it’s the Christmas Star, do you. I know Christmas is just past, but I remember the story of the three wise men following the star.” I said staring through the binocs.
“Well one thing for sure, there are only two of us, and we certainly aren’t no wise men!” chided my hunting partner. I simply shook my head, but still could not really get a handle on what we were watching.
The object was big and round, but not nearly as large as the moon, which had gone down just as we began our journey westward. It was about half as big as the moon when it was full, however. And it certainly wasn’t a planet, we couldn’t see any craters or such as you can see on the moon when it’s bigger than just a sliver. “Maybe the military has got something new they’re trying down on our border, seeing if they can spot movement on the ground below, people moving in the dark and such.” Said my partner.
“If it is, that would certainly be a good tool for us to determine where and when the bucks are moving. Based on what you and I’ve done this year in terms of taking good bucks, we certainly could use all the help we could get!” spoke I a bit louder than normal.
“Yeah, the only mature bucks I’ve seen this year have been dinks we should have taken two or three years ago before they grew to full maturity and stared seriously spreading their genes.” Came the reply. “Why don’t you break out that new Zeiss spotting scope of yours and see if you can see it any better. Looked through that thing the other day at a deer well over a half mile away and I could see he had three ticks behind his left ear.”
As instructed I pulled the Zeiss out of its case, and rested it upon a couple of sand bags I had in the back of the pickup. After finding the object in the sky, I started fine tuning the focus. The edges of the nearly circular, brightly illuminated object shown fine and clear through the spotting scope, but gave no clue to its origin or purpose. But it was shining brightly.
“Boy, you got me. I can’t figure out what it is. But it seems to be moving a bit farther away, getting slightly smaller. We best be getting on as well, got to meet Charlie at the gate in about 40 minutes, and we’re still about 50 minutes away….. Sure wish I knew what that thing up there was because it seems to be drifting toward where we’re going to be hunting…..”
May your 2006 year be filled with wonder, great promise and even a bit of mystery!
Don’t forget to stop by Los Cazadores on the 4 th of February for our Wild Hog Contest Awards Program and get together. Maybe by then my hunting partner and I will have figured out what it was we saw…By chance did you see it?
|
|
|
