Anna Fisher at the World Science Festival

I'm adult enough to let kids take precedence over me in regards to autographs; after all, I have the ability and opportunity to see astronauts that they may not.

That said, it miffs me when kids - at least half a dozen - cut a line somehow even with staffers present to get autographs. Not so much for me but for the family in front of me who had been waiting nicely for 10 minutes, and who had three children of their own.

We said something to the family, telling them how much we liked how nice and well-behaved their kids were, waiting patiently even though others jumped the queue. They're the kids that if Anna Lee Fisher didn't have lithos, I would have gladly handed them my own photos (or photos from my extra pile, which I normally bring but didn't.)

In either case, it slipped my mind to ask Fisher about the STS-61-H gag photo which I've seen only a portion of. I have to ask the other astronauts on that flight next time I see them.

Hearing Fisher speak, and the autograph session afterward, wasn't my idea (seriously), but my wife's, who had seen a post about stargazing at Brooklyn Bridge Park, an event that was part of the World Science Festival on June 4.

Those who are space geeks will recognize the reference when I say it was like getting to Cone Crater. Due to service changes, the A train ran on the F tracks in lower Manhattan. Just in time as we went through a few unfamiliar-by-name stops did I pull out the directions and get out at the right stop. Thank goodness for hard copies of maps as well as GPS!

(Coming back, there were no C trains at High Street, but a passerby gave us directions to the Clark Street station, where we hopped a nice express 3 train back to Penn Station. It's one of three subway stations in NYC where the tracks are reachable only by elevator, but I digress.)

And when we got there, we saw there was a schedule.We hadn't seen one in the event listing. One item on the event listing was a meet-and-greet with Fisher, and I had believed that she would be walking about, where people could talk with her, maybe get some stuff signed, we would then wait 'til it got dark, see some stars, then leave. Home by midnight, at worst.

You know what they say about best-laid plans....

First off, just as we got to the park it started to rain. Not a hard rain, but a drizzle. Though it did stop after a bit, the skies remained overcast - no stars could be seen with the unaided eye. We looked through a telescope at the Statue of Liberty, but that's as far as we got on that aspect.

According to the schedule that was posted, Fisher wouldn't come on until 9 p.m. We decided to stay for at least a bit of her talk, then wound up staying for the whole half-hour.

We really enjoyed it. She knew how to talk to kids without talking down to them, and without throwing in words and jargon that kids may not understand. Fisher's talk prompted some questions from my wife, which I was happy to answer. (She's not into space and astronauts as much as I am, so any discussion on space other than the events of the Apollo 13 movie is rare.)

Following the talk came the autograph session. Since my wife needed to sit, we found an empty spot on a bench - which was near a table we presumed would be used for the signing. Staffers handed out paper where people could write down names for lithos to be personalized. We declined, telling them, "We've done this before. No personalization, as we want her to get through as many people as possible."

I already had my "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" book signed by Fisher, so my wife got her copy signed, as well as two other items:

It wasn't until we were on the way to the event that I realized it had almost been 30 years since the intended launch date of STS-61-H. Fisher signed the cover of the Flight Data File Crew Activity Plan. I guess I now have to get the other four U.S. crew members to autograph this, five, if you include Norman Thagard, who had been assigned to this flight before getting placed on STS-61-G, one of the Shuttle/Centaur flights.

Of course, it would be nice if Nigel Wood of Great Britain or Pratiwi Sudarmono of Indonesia, the two payload specialists assigned, could sign this as well....

And since I dislike standard portrait shots, preferring action or unusual shots, I chose this photo also for Fisher to sign. As she did, she remarked that it was among her favorite pictures.

Fisher's talk capped a whirlwind three weeks of astronaut appearances - seeing Mark and Scott Kelly, who had their elementary school named after them (which I will blog about next); the 44th Space Congress (with Scott Altman; John-David Bartoe; Sam Durrance; Steve Robinson; Winston Scott; and attendee Scott Vangen) - and then this. (And I missed Mark Polansky, who was in his home state of New Jersey, and whom I don't have in my book nor have I met!)

I added only three new signatures to my "Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years" book but I still enjoyed meeting the various astronauts, some of whom I met for the first time.