Now, that's a "first"...

As part of my job at the U.S. Naval Observatory I give "special tours" to groups of folks who have something to do with our mission or have some sort of inside connection to the Observatory, staff, tenants, and so forth. This is the time of year when I get besieged by requests for these tours. Fortunately, the Deputy Superintendent gets to have the final say on which requests are valid for my support.

This past week I had two such tours, Friday and Saturday night. The Friday tour was for a group of Girl Scouts under the sponsorship of a staffer in the White House Military Office who works logistics at the VP Residence.

For several weeks one of the other staffers at the VPR had been trying to get me to do a special tour for a young couple, one from the White House, the other from State Department. The young man wanted to propose to his GF in a telescope dome, since she was into astronomy.

Needless to say had this request been routed through "channels" it probably would have been shot down faster than Dick Cheney can wing a lawyer, so I was able to convince the parties involved that the easiest way to do it would be to "piggyback" the couple on the Girl Scout tour.

Friday night arrived, and the Scouts were early. Fortunately I brought in lots of hardware for show-'n-tell, and I was able to entertain them outside until the couple arrived. I went down to fetch them at the South Gate, brought them up to join the Scouts, and proceeded to conduct my tour.

We went up to the telescope as planned to look at the Moon and Mars. Then, again as planned, I took the scouts outside to learn how to use star charts and pointed out some constellations, leaving the couple alone in the dome.

The Scouts departed at around 9:30 pm, and I went back up to the telescope to see how things were going. Well, the proposal was made on bended knee, and the young lady said "Yes". I gave them a long look at Saturn, which was high enough to see by then, and we chatted for awhile before they left at a little after 10.

Sometimes you just have to do the right thing. I was pleased that I was able to not only help the Scouts (a very attentive group, BTW) with their merit badge, but I also helped facilitate the start of a new relationship between two people. As far as I know this was the first marriage proposal conducted in the dome of the 12-inch telescope, and it had a successful outcome.

Love under the stars. A good start if you ask me.