So I was taking out the trash on this chilly, dark night, and I look up and I see a massive amount of stars and some planes blinking away in the night. I finish with the trash and then just sit in the driveway and watch the planes fly 38,000 feet over my head. I pulled out my phone and looked at flight aware and saw that one of the planes was coming from Iceland. I saw a Delta 777-200LR in the distance what was going to Johannesburg. I also saw two planes cross paths head on right over me. From my perspective, they were hitting each other head on, and according to Flight Aware, they were pretty close actually.
I must have sat out there for 20 minutes, and then I saw a very bright object moving really fast right towards me. A split second later I realized that it was a shooting star, which whizzed over my head.

Really neat experience. Bored? Go outside and just look up

I do that all the time Chuck,even more now that I have moved back to the country after 30 years in Dallas.The first night I told my wife to come outside with me,(she has always lived in the city)then told her to look up,she immediately said "WOW"!

Cool, but you haven't seen stars until you've seen them on a clear winter nightat 9000 ft! I grew up in Flagstaff, AZ and drove a CJ 5 Jeep. Every once in a while in the winter I would drive up to a lookout tower on Mt. Elden north of town, turn off the lights and just sit there and watch the stars! I mean really, I was by myself just looking at those billions and billions of stars - it was beautiful!

Good post Chuck - it brought back memories!

I remember nights out on the ocean, on the aircraft carrier when they went to darken ship, no moon, talk about an awesome sight.

I live out west of Chicago about 60 minutes......Farmland U.S.A.

I thought star gazing out my way was great until I had the opportunity to do a plane pickup at the Canadian/North Dakota border one night around midnight......I stopped the van on my way back to the hotel and took the time to look up and enjoy.

The sky was so black that the stars in the heaven shown like all those pictures you see taken from observatories.

It truly humbles one to think about all that is out there and how insignificant we humans really are.

Nice thread Chuck! I love just sitting outside and looking up, especially a week or so ago when the meteor showers were in full effect, it was just awesome. Last year in Wisconsin we got an incredible view of the Aurora Borealis after a very large CME triggered a G4 geomagnetic storm. Was insane.

You know,if more people in this world would enjoy the "little" things more then the BIG things would take care of them selves.Where I live in the hills of KY,on an unlit ridge top there is no ambient light so the moonless,cloudless night are a thing of beauty and wonder.I cant count the number of shooting stars and satelites I have seen pass overhead.It just makes me want the sun to come on up so I can get MY plane up there,,,

One of my favorite pics:

I remember driving up Mt Lemon in Tucson Az and watching the stars as well .. we use to fly gliders during the day at the same spot