What I did today

Why, I acquired photographic proof of Bigfoot! Here he is piloting a flying saucer:

No, silly, of course that's the space shuttle Discovery, STS-116. Photographed at night. From 11 miles away. The white arrow points to the external fuel tank (but of course you could tell).

This is immediately after liftoff.

...And a few seconds after that. I should remind you at this point that it was 8:47 pm at the time of these pictures. It was brighter than this image makes it seem; you could have read a book by it.

Discovery heading for orbit. It took a while for the sound to travel to our vantage point from nearby Titusville (there were thousands of people there to watch), but when it got there, it was LOUD. TV does not do it justice by any means. It was amazing how fast it climbed, and how long it was visible. We could see the solid rocket booster separation easily through binoculars. The light of the shuttle's main engines was visible until just before cutoff, when it dropped behind a cloud in the distance.

This was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity. I don't know if a daytime launch would be as impressive; it's hard to imagine it topping the night launch. Thanks to Tom for coming along.