An Aerial Jelly Fish in the Sky over the Skunk Works

Stare at the sky long enough, and you'll eventually see something a little different.

I was mowing the mostly dead grass in my front yard late in the day, took a break to flop in my lawn chair and, of course, looked up. Way up, past the orange-bellied Southwest 737's heading into St. Louis, was a tiny dot that looked to be barely moving.

Binoculars time! Couldn't see a lot of detail, but enough to tell it was a balloon. Out comes the old, battered Mead reflector, which brought in a lot more detail.

I STILL haven't bought a camera adapter for the telescope (been threatening to for ten years), but tried to get a few photos by just pointing the camera down it's eyepiece, while trying not to jar the thing. Got a few fairly decent shots, then called my brother Keith who lives 40 miles away in Olmsted.

He was able to spot it easily, saying that it looked like an early star. We watched it track to the east and finally lost it as the sun went down.

Haven't seen one since WAY back in 1972 or '73, when we watched one hover over Southern Illinois all day and into the early evening, glowing as the sun still hit it, even after sunset.

While it's hard to see in the photos, there looked to be an instrument package hanging below it. If there was a camera on that sucker, bet it was getting some great photos!