Stargazing from the Roof Deck

Our apartment building has a little roof deck nobody uses because of the pigeons. In August, during the Perseid meteor shower, I put up a sign in the lobby: "Shooting stars on the roof, 11 p.m. Bring a blanket."

I expected maybe two people. Twenty-three came. Neighbors in bathrobes, a couple with a sleeping baby in a carrier, an older man with a telescope he hadn't used in years, a teenager with a thermos of cocoa she shared with everyone.

City lights made it hard, but we saw a few. Every time someone spotted one, the whole roof yelled "There!" and pointed in fourteen different directions. The man with the telescope showed us Saturn's rings, and people gasped like children.

We're doing it again next year. The pigeons will just have to deal with it.