Thursday, April 2, 2009

The View From Our Front Yard

Looking north from our front yard, we often have an interesting view.......in the sky. (On the ground it's just a pasture of cows.) I took some pictures of the recent space shuttle launch. We're approx. 45 miles from Kennedy Space Center and we can see the shuttle within seconds of the launch. This first picture isn't even my first glimpse, but it's the first decent photo. lol That speck of light between the two palm trees is the space shuttle. The following pictures are taken rapidly. It gives you an idea of how fast it goes.




In the picture below the external rocket boosters have dropped off the shuttle. This happens two minutes into the flight. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the change in the shuttle better. After this stage we kept seeing these dark shapes moving in the sky and couldn't figure out what they were. When they got closer we realized that they were sky divers. They must have had a special evening jump to watch the shuttle launch. Wouldn't that be awesome if you liked to sky dive? (We have a sky diving service here in our small town that is known around the world. People come from countries in every corner of the world to sky dive here for some reason.)

This is a pretty picture of the sunset glowing through the trail of vapor or whatever it is that the shuttle leaves in it's path.



A week or so after the shuttle launch we saw this unusual sight to the north one day. It is a sky diver with an enormous flag hooked below his parachute. I can't imagine how he/she landed safely.



As it got closer we saw that it was the flag of Paraguay. We don't know why this person was jumping with the flag, but it looked really neat. In the photo below you can get an idea of how enormous the flag had to have been. Think of how big a parachute is and then look at how small the parachute is in comparison to the flag.





Okay, I'll quit chatting about my sky sightings. lol
Blessings
  • An understanding husband when I need a shoulder to cry on
  • A sale on some groceries we use alot
  • An excellent library even though we live in a small town
Have a fabulous day!!!
Inky hugs!
Shelly







4 comments:

Kim said...

Those photos are so neat. We live about 75 miles from Edwards Air Force base where the shuttle occaissionally lands, but all we have ever gotten from that is sonic booms.
I loved seeing these and thank you so much for sharing them.

susan55040 said...

That is awesome Shelly. How cool to experience that. Really neat. In answer to your question about Sarah Kay. I purchased those images from Stampers Dream.

Danni said...

Wow! Matthew would love to be that close to seeing the shuttle!! Very cool!

Stamping Palace said...

Wow those are awesome photos! I did not realize how close you! I was in that area about 3 years ago visiting.