I was at my fiancee's parents house in Merritt Island. Having grown up in Orlando, I've been 'spoiled' by watching every launch. However, being so close during a night launch, well, there aren't words to explain it. You go ouside when the coundown reaches 1 minute. You look the direction of KSC and then you see it. It's like someone turns on a light switch, the ENTIRE sky turns to daylight. You can see every cloud and could probably read a book ouside. Simply amazing. Depending on how close you are to the launch, a few seconds later the ground begins to rumble and you can literally feel the power in the air. The rumble lasts for a few good minutes.
This time, with how clear it was, you could even seen the detatched boosters falling to the earth. We watched what looked like a bright star for about 10 minutes until it was over the horizon as we could see it.
By far the most amazing launch I've seen in my life and I'd venture to say I've seen at least 90% of all launches.
BTW, TJR - that's amazing picture, but even still doesn't do it justice. I hope one day you can come down and see a night launch. I am sure you would love it.
