Coolest Thing Seen in the Sky?

[rstaff3]

I am from said hell hole and was back visiting family. I can't remember the year but know it was before 1993. It had stopped at Biggs on its way back to Florida. We were on our way out of town and hadn't even realized it was there...so we we shocked to see it. I've never been fortunate enough to see it launching or landing. Seeing it on the ground at Ellington Field was pretty cool as you got pretty close. But that wasn't in the air in the way intended in this thread.

 

[Peartree]

Probably have to say it was the F-16 flyover when I was visiting family in Germany in '79 or '80. We were just playing around in the back yard when they went screaming overhead at what seemed like treetop height. Never heard them coming, just a flash and they were gone and then SCREAM! Way cool.

Rstaff, I used to visit El Paso occasionally for work (long ago). Ever eat at State Line? I loved it there (though I only got to go twice).

Of course you have.

 

[WiK]

There are some great stories in this thread!

The coolest thing I've seen was 7 or 8 years ago when I was out walking with the rest of the family. We were cutting across a field on the top of a hill when out of nowhere the Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane from the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight fly directly overhead in their usual formation at about 500ft.

More recently, we had an Airbus A380 in a low holding pattern over the house a couple of years ago, waiting to do a display at Farnborough. Didn't realise how big it was until then.

Phil

 

[rstaff3]

Rstaff, I used to visit El Paso occasionally for work (long ago). Ever eat at State Line? I loved it there (though I only got to go twice).

Of course you have.

Yes, the State Line is great! As good a BBQ as you'll get anywhere. It was only a couple of three miles from where I grew up and I've eaten there many times (although it came in after I technically had moved away).

 

[Viperfixr]

I was 12 years old when my Dad pulled me with one night of notice from school to travel with him to the desert wasteland around Edwards AFB. At the time, he worked as the aviation editor for the Arizona Republic newspaper, and he was there to cover the first landing of an orbiting space shuttle--Columbia on STS-1. We got there a day before the launch and waited for the landing, spending time interviewing test pilots, astronauts and NASA officials. I spent a lot of time speechless, in awe of the people I was meeting and jets I was seeing. The whole base was on display.

On the morning of the landing, Columbia announced itself with a double sonic boom after it passed nearly right overhead, moving FAST from west to east. It swooped in a huge arc to the south, then reversed direction back towards the runway it had overflown. While on "base leg", a single sonic boom again racked the silence. Everyone watched mezmerized; cameras were clicking away, but many jaws were agape at this spacecraft turned glider returning to earth before our very eyes.

Now subsonic and on final, it came in at an incredibly steep angle--you could see the flight surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing. We were not sure all was well with how fast & steep it was coming down! It seemed at the last second the nose came up, the gear sprang out, and it touched down much softer than anyone would have guessed watching the approach to landing. It rolled down the dry lake bed runway, coming to a stop towards the departure end where the press was huddled, about a quarter+ mile away. It was other-worldly feeling at the time, surreal at the very least. Our cameras didn't stop until we had shot all the B&W film readily available.

My Dad passed away in 2002, but I'll never forget that trip he took me on.

 

[Fred22]

I was 12 years old when my Dad pulled me with one night of notice from school to travel with him to the desert wasteland around Edwards AFB. At the time, he worked as the aviation editor for the Arizona Republic newspaper, and he was there to cover the first landing of an orbiting space shuttle--Columbia on STS-1. We got there a day before the launch and waited for the landing, spending time interviewing test pilots, astronauts and NASA officials. I spent a lot of time speechless, in awe of the people I was meeting and jets I was seeing. The whole base was on display.

On the morning of the landing, Columbia announced itself with a double sonic boom after it passed nearly right overhead, moving FAST from west to east. It swooped in a huge arc to the south, then reversed direction back towards the runway it had overflown. While on "base leg", a single sonic boom again racked the silence. Everyone watched mezmerized; cameras were clicking away, but many jaws were agape at this spacecraft turned glider returning to earth before our very eyes.

Now subsonic and on final, it came in at an incredibly steep angle--you could see the flight surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing. We were not sure all was well with how fast & steep it was coming down! It seemed at the last second the nose came up, the gear sprang out, and it touched down much softer than anyone would have guessed watching the approach to landing. It rolled down the dry lake bed runway, coming to a stop towards the departure end where the press was huddled, about a quarter+ mile away. It was other-worldly feeling at the time, surreal at the very least. Our cameras didn't stop until we had shot all the B&W film readily available.

My Dad passed away in 2002, but I'll never forget that trip he took me on.

Simply amazing. Good for you man
Cheers
fred

 

[RocketT.Coyote]

Aurora Borealis following a Ted Nugent DARE concert at Northwood Institute in Midland, MI. Over a decade ago.

Then there was the F-16 heritage flight solo doing aerobatics over the nearby sugar beet processing plant.

Comet Halle Bopp

Mars at closest approach of the decade.

 

[dedleytedley]

Okay if no one else has any I'll tell my UFO stories. The first occurred in 1973 when I was eleven years old. I grew up in southern Ontario about 40 miles north of Toronto in a then rural area. Our neighbourhood was surrounded by fields and forests. One evening at dusk myself and three friends were messing around out in a field when we spotted a red light low in the south moving in an erratic motion. It wasn't very bright at first but after a few seconds it stopped moving and brightened enough to cast shadows for a few more seconds. We began shouting and running towards it. Then it dimmed and receded from view at a high rate of speed. As I said before I don't believe in flying saucers so I'm stumped for an explanation of what it was. There are no air bases or airfields near there but it's interesting that a local newspaper report later that year detailed a farm family's UFO sightings at their farm located in line with my sighting from the field I was in. There was no noise associated with the sighting and an aircraft would have been audible for some distance. Ted

 

[rstaff3]

Thinking of El Paso, I remembered another good one...of a whole different type...low and slow. The War Eagles Air Museum outside of El Paso does monthly public air shows. My favorite back then (the jets weren't operational at that time) was the Fi-156 Fieseler Storch. To say this was not one of their fastest planes is an understatement. The Storch was a German reconnaissance plane and flying slow was a feature not a bug. It can fly at such a low airspeed that, on a breezy New Mexico day, it can fly backwards across the field. Now that's something you don't see everyday!

 

[JAL3]

I guess for me it would be the Shuttle atop its carrier, circling low over downtown El Paso. I've seen it up high a couple of other times, but this was much closer. #2 probably would be Steve Eves' Saturn V.

I was driving on US 90 having come back to San Antonio from the family ranch in Hondo. I was not too far into SA and wondered why so many cars were stopped on the median and shoulders. I didn't wonder about it enough to try and find out.

One of the Kelly AFB runways butted up to US 90 and I was used to seening C5s sometimes land as I drove by. This time I was not paying attention until a huge shadow black out my car. I glanced up just in time to see the shuttle on its carrier as it touched down about 60 yards to my right. I had driven right under it as it crossed the highway on final. My guess is that it was not more than 100 feet in the air at the time.

That was a wow moment.

 

[MattieShoes]

Pfft, planes!

The moon

The great nebula in Orion

The center of our own galaxy

The Pleiades

The North American Nebula

I guess I should list "astrophotography" under interests...

 

[Fred22]

Pfft, planes!

The moon

The great nebula in Orion

The center of our own galaxy

The Pleiades

The North American Nebula

I guess I should list "astrophotography" under interests...

Nice shots
cheers
fred

 

[Fred22]

Okay if no one else has any I'll tell my UFO stories. The first occurred in 1973 when I was eleven years old. I grew up in southern Ontario about 40 miles north of Toronto in a then rural area. Our neighbourhood was surrounded by fields and forests. One evening at dusk myself and three friends were messing around out in a field when we spotted a red light low in the south moving in an erratic motion. It wasn't very bright at first but after a few seconds it stopped moving and brightened enough to cast shadows for a few more seconds. We began shouting and running towards it. Then it dimmed and receded from view at a high rate of speed. As I said before I don't believe in flying saucers so I'm stumped for an explanation of what it was. There are no air bases or airfields near there but it's interesting that a local newspaper report later that year detailed a farm family's UFO sightings at their farm located in line with my sighting from the field I was in. There was no noise associated with the sighting and an aircraft would have been audible for some distance. Ted

I belive some UFO's are piloted and it aint by us I have heard stories from lots of folks about similar objects. I have not seen one myself
Cheers
fred

 

[Evo666]

Probably have to say it was the F-16 flyover when I was visiting family in Germany in '79 or '80. We were just playing around in the back yard when they went screaming overhead at what seemed like treetop height. Never heard them coming, just a flash and they were gone and then SCREAM! Way cool.

Rstaff, I used to visit El Paso occasionally for work (long ago). Ever eat at State Line? I loved it there (though I only got to go twice).

Of course you have.

My fav is Jaxon's

 

[Fred22]

Heres some cool things
https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ufo/002029-1500-e.html
Cheers
fred

 

[GlennW]

Saw the USAF Thunderbirds at an air show when I was a kid so that was pretty cool of course! More recently I would have to say it was seeing the ISS moving across the night sky with the shuttle chasing it, this was a couple of years ago. Pretty neat stuff.

Glenn

 

[Luv2launch]

Okay if no one else has any I'll tell my UFO stories. The first occurred in 1973 when I was eleven years old. I grew up in southern Ontario about 40 miles north of Toronto in a then rural area. Our neighbourhood was surrounded by fields and forests. One evening at dusk myself and three friends were messing around out in a field when we spotted a red light low in the south moving in an erratic motion. It wasn't very bright at first but after a few seconds it stopped moving and brightened enough to cast shadows for a few more seconds. We began shouting and running towards it. Then it dimmed and receded from view at a high rate of speed. As I said before I don't believe in flying saucers so I'm stumped for an explanation of what it was. There are no air bases or airfields near there but it's interesting that a local newspaper report later that year detailed a farm family's UFO sightings at their farm located in line with my sighting from the field I was in. There was no noise associated with the sighting and an aircraft would have been audible for some distance. Ted

Well if we are going to go with these kinds of stories I'll drop the one good one I have.This one goes back to about 92 or 93 right after I graduated from high school.Was out with a couple friends one day when one of them need to goto the bank which is downtown, so my friend that was driving took him down there and parked on the top level of the parking deck facing the east.The guy that needed to go to the bank took off and went inside and me and my other buddy were sitting out in the car waiting for him.I kinda noticed my buddy squinting at something out in the distance so I said to him hey man what are you looking at?He kinda looks at me puzzled and say I have no idea you look out there and tell me what you see?Now at this point its about 3 in the afternoon.So I look out in the direction he pointed at and off in the distance I see three spheres which is the best way I can describe them kinda bopping around doing I guess what I can describe best as scribbles on a sheet of paper when all of a sudden one stops in mid air and accelerates straight up a ways and takes a 90 degree corner at speed goes north a bit all at speed without slowing down then goes back to doing the scribbles again.We watched this go on for about 20 or 25 minutes with the three of them doing about the same thing when out third friend finally comes out of the bank, now by this time me and my buddy who saw these things in the first place are outside of the car just watching in amazement when the third guy comes up to us and was like hey what are you guys watchin?So we both look at him and say we don't know man why don't you take a look out there and tell us what you see?So he looks and he confirms what the two of us see and had been watching for the past 20 minutes.At this point they hung around for another 10 minutes when two of them started to go straight up one at a very high rate of speed the other one not quite as fast but still pretty fast and the third on went straight down and they were gone.I don't know what they were but I have seen other videos of them through the years, the one I mainly remember was taken near Area 51 in Nevada but also others places.The general area they were putting on their show was over the Air Force base in the city across the river from the city I live in so its anybodys guess what those things were.I have seen other things but this one is the best becuase there were others there to back up the story.

PS That night when I got home I told my Dad about these pretty crazey objects and he kinda looks at me and say oh really they put on a show for you guy eh, I have seen the same thing that you described to me from the bathroom window of the shop(the factory he used to work at) many times except they never put on an acrobatic show they just hovered up in the air in formation with there being more and more of them over the course of a three day span.This goes back to the late 60's early 70's I would assume maybe in the 80's he never did tell me exactly when he saw them.

 

[rstaff3]

That was a wow moment.

That sounds awesome.

 

[jadebox]

I grew up around Eglin AFB, so often saw neat things in the sky ... Chemicals released from sounding rockets creating colorful clouds, a BOMARC launch at night, a B-2 flying low and slow over my town house, a C-130 trailing a wire (antenna?) that had to be at least a half-mile long, NASA's 747 landing and taking off with the shuttle orbiter on its back, a cruise missile flying over our house trailed by a couple of F-15s, the Thunderbirds rehearsing over our school, a helicopter hoving about 75 feet above the highway .....

One of the coolest things was one night when I was lying in a lawn chair in my back yard watching for meteors during one of the annual showers. My home backed up to the Eglin reservation around Hurlburt field, so I was close to the runways. A C-130 came in low over my house. I didn't hear or see it until it was right above me. It was so low, I could see the tread on the tires.

One night a few years ago, my wife and I were at Epcot and we saw a fireball in the sky. It was like a meteor, but brighter and longer lasting. Plus, we could see flaming parts trailing from it. It was visible in spite of the lights in the park. It was a couple of years later that I learned what it was - a re-entering Russian spacecraft.


-- Roger

 

[luke strawwalker]

I grew up around Eglin AFB, so often saw neat things in the sky ... Chemicals released from sounding rockets creating colorful clouds, a BOMARC launch at night, a B-2 flying low and slow over my town house, a C-130 trailing a wire (antenna?) that had to be at least a half-mile long, NASA's 747 landing and taking off with the shuttle orbiter on its back, a cruise missile flying over our house trailed by a couple of F-15s, the Thunderbirds rehearsing over our school, a helicopter hoving about 75 feet above the highway .....

One of the coolest things was one night when I was lying in a lawn chair in my back yard watching for meteors during one of the annual showers. My home backed up to the Eglin reservation around Hurlburt field, so I was close to the runways. A C-130 came in low over my house. I didn't hear or see it until it was right above me. It was so low, I could see the tread on the tires.

One night a few years ago, my wife and I were at Epcot and we saw a fireball in the sky. It was like a meteor, but brighter and longer lasting. Plus, we could see flaming parts trailing from it. It was visible in spite of the lights in the park. It was a couple of years later that I learned what it was - a re-entering Russian spacecraft.


-- Roger

Sounds like that scene from "Wayne's World" laying on the hood of the MirthMobile, when the 747 flies over landing... LOL

OL JR

 

[Luv2launch]

I grew up around Eglin AFB, so often saw neat things in the sky ... Chemicals released from sounding rockets creating colorful clouds, a BOMARC launch at night, a B-2 flying low and slow over my town house, a C-130 trailing a wire (antenna?) that had to be at least a half-mile long, NASA's 747 landing and taking off with the shuttle orbiter on its back, a cruise missile flying over our house trailed by a couple of F-15s, the Thunderbirds rehearsing over our school, a helicopter hoving about 75 feet above the highway .....

One of the coolest things was one night when I was lying in a lawn chair in my back yard watching for meteors during one of the annual showers. My home backed up to the Eglin reservation around Hurlburt field, so I was close to the runways. A C-130 came in low over my house. I didn't hear or see it until it was right above me. It was so low, I could see the tread on the tires.

One night a few years ago, my wife and I were at Epcot and we saw a fireball in the sky. It was like a meteor, but brighter and longer lasting. Plus, we could see flaming parts trailing from it. It was visible in spite of the lights in the park. It was a couple of years later that I learned what it was - a re-entering Russian spacecraft.


-- Roger

That last part about the russian spacecraft reminds me of a meteorite that I saw come in one night while sitting on my back porch, I heard it before I saw it, I heard a whistling noise and a crackeling sound and looked to my left and it was coming by between my porch roof and the neighbors roof I'd almost sell my soul saying that puppy came down some where close its too bad I was in back instead of out front I would have been able to see more of it.And I would have for sure hopped in the car and taken a drive around to look for it considering a meteorite is free money falling from the sky if you can find them on the ground afterwards.

 

[BR549]

I had several years of sky highlights. My dad was stationed at Patrick AFB just across from Cape Canaveral from 1965 to 1970 (actually Cape Kennedy back then).

I got to see numerous Saturn V launches from lawn chairs in the front yard. I was 4 when we moved there and 9 years old when we left. I guess thats when my love for space and rockets developed.

 

[dave carver]

Oh, yeah, my fireball story. My brother and I were traveling East at sunset when inline with the road we saw a very large fireball desending. It was trailing a licking flame, looked like the flame paint job on a '57 Chevy. Don't know what it was, never heard anything about it on the news.

 

[ScrapDaddy]

Iv seen a UFO before

 

[Scotty Dog]

Where do you suppose the mut was headed :confused2: Sirus the Dog Star?

 

[JAL3]

That sounds awesome.

It was, even though I only saw the back end of things.

 

[Fred22]

I had several years of sky highlights. My dad was stationed at Patrick AFB just across from Cape Canaveral from 1965 to 1970 (actually Cape Kennedy back then).

I got to see numerous Saturn V launches from lawn chairs in the front yard. I was 4 when we moved there and 9 years old when we left. I guess thats when my love for space and rockets developed.

God Saturn V launches wow Im a tad envious
Cheers
fred

 

[RocketT.Coyote]

Smokey Sam launches near Waters, MI.

 

[Handeman]

Most of the cool things I've seen in the sky was while I was in the Navy, or Navy related. The first was the Blue Angels at an air show in Green Bay during the mid 70s. We parked in front of the barricades on a road along the back side of the airport. Two angels came in low, the front one inverted and the trailing one with his nose about 3 feet from the rudder of the lead plane. They came across the field, raise their altitude about 20 ft. to clear the telephone wires running along the road we were on, then dropped back down as they headed over the airport. The wires were only about 20 ft off the ground to begin with.

I stood on the O-3 level (50ft above the water line) of a destroyer and looked straight at the pilot of a F14 as he came straight at me. He tilted it on it's tail and went vertical directly over my head and I could feel the hot gas from his exhaust.

Watched a B-52 fly over at 500 ft. Those things are BIG :y:

Tomcat launches off a carrier at night. The twin flames when they hit afterburner and go vertical was amazing!

Watching a towed target get shot to h#!! by a Phallanx system as it was towed over the ship at 200 ft by a A7. The first time I saw this, it was shot off the cable and tumbled between the masts before hitting the water.

I saw the Russian rocket re-enter over the east coast, going south to north about 10? years ago. It was a huge fireball and left a big trail. Different then any meteor I've ever seen.

 

[MattieShoes]

I just went to my first night-launch. Skidmarks at night are COOOOOL!

That's a 10 second exposure -- It was much darker than the image suggests