Whatcha doing today?

[JBtheExplorer]

I went out to catch a few meteors and accidentally saw the northern lights! Very faint to the naked eye. not nearly as impressive as in spring, but still surprising to see!

 

[hamstermann]

I went out to catch a few meteors and accidentally saw the northern lights! Very faint to the naked eye. not nearly as impressive as in spring, but still surprising to see!

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Interesting. I thought you could only see those in Alaska.

 

[addy1]

No meteors cloud cover, got up 3 times to look, finally gave up.

To much light seemed really bright out there.

 

[mrsclem]

Went to Lowes to hopefully get last of supplies for new lotus pond area. Seems like a lot of the plant survived.
Have all pavers layer out, now just need to get everything leveled and metal edging installed.
Installing electric fence to attempt to keep deer out of the yard!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

The Perseids peak is over but I sat out for about 20 minutes tonight and saw three meteors. One was especially bright and long-lasting. Those are the best! When they last long enough that you actually get a second to comprehend it.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Big jump day for the local skydiving company. Went over to a local park to watch from a distance.

And a bonus R44 flyby.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Here's another round of drops.

And both planes together.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Oh, I just found out the skydiving thing is going for the rest of the week. They'll be attempting to break state records this weekend. Today and tomorrow are practice days. (But there's rain expected the next three days)

 

[JBtheExplorer]

This is cool. These are not my photos obviously, they were posted by All American Big Ways on Facebook. These were taken yesterday. Fun seeing this from their perspective! Obviously I couldn't see their formations from my perspective, I could only see them once the chutes were open.

They didn't go up today due to the weather, and the next couple days isn't looking ideal right now either. I was hoping to watch them again tomorrow but rain/storm chances went up.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

They had three planes in formation today, but they've only done one jump. I missed the shot of the formation. Hard to find on camera at 17,000 feet, but I did get to see them come in low before landing.

Here's the third plane. It's another Twin Otter, owned by Skydive Chicago.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

It happened! They did a massive drop a little bit ago. I think the goal for the big jump was 120 skydivers, so I'm guessing that's what this was. I was in the middle of making dinner so I couldn't head over to the park to watch them. Still got to see the formation of five fly over, and then a formation of three a few minutes ago. Also had a flyover so low that I was too zoomed in to fit it in the frame! It was awesome!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

A couple photos of the big drop from the same facebook account that posted the others.

 

[addy1]

Neat shots!

Heading to airport, hubby in Florida for 2 weeks with his son.

My break is over lol!

 

[j.w]

Waiting for big so called storm to arrive this evening! Always act so dramatic and it usually never shows up. We shall see!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

So, I went over to the airport today! So much fun - Got to watch them load up and take off. They climbed to 17,000, but then I noticed on my flight radar that they started coming back down. The drop was called off. I watched the planes come back in and land and went home. But I got to see some planes up close and it was fun. Very unique being this close to a runway - only about 260 feet away!