Most major astronomical events are reported by observatories, but a plaque now commemorates the first sighting of Sputnik I -- the dawn of a new era -- in a more humble location. Dexter Stegemeyer sat in his outhouse in Fairbanks, Alaska, watching the sky on the morning of October 6, 1957, when the historic event occurred. "Mr. Stegemeyer said he was just sitting there enjoying the beauty of the stars twinking in the sky when he saw a strange moving star come up out of the west. From its speed and uniform passage across the sky, he know it could not be an airplane, a meteor or any other familiar phenomena," said Fairbanks scientist Neil Davis, who with Neal Brown recently installed a plaque at the outhouse to memorialize the event. The Geophysical Institute has long received credit for the first sighting of Sputnik I, but Stegemeyer was actually the first, Davis says. (Adapted from Anchorage Daily News.)

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