Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from ...

MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 203
land Florida. The cape is surrounded by water, and by wildlife. We
actually saw a couple of alligators, which is a weird sight so close
to such a technological marvel.
About an hour before the launch, I spotted some unusual lights
in the night sky, a dozen or more, to the right of the launch pad
from our viewpoint. They were perhaps at the same distance from
us as the pad, about 10 kilometers (6 miles), although it was hard
to tell. My father pointed out that they were moving, so we kept
watching. The movement was very slow, as if they were hovering.
I figured it was a group of distant spotting planes, but then remembered
that NASA only uses one or two planes to sweep around
the area. No other planes are allowed near the shuttle; it is jealously
guarded by NASA for obvious reasons.
My next guess was birds, but these objects were glowing. Balloons?
No, they were moving too quickly. No satellites group together
like that. My excitement mounted, despite my more rational
thoughts. What were they? As I watched, I noticed that they were
moving together, but not in a straight line. They weaved slightly.
That ruled out satellites and a host of other mechanical objects.
I refused to think of any ridiculous explanations involving anything,
well, ridiculous. But what were these things? All I could see
through binoculars were glowing dots.
Their flight path was taking them to my right as I continued to
watch them through binoculars. Slowly, faintly, I could hear a
noise they were making. It was eerie, odd, difficult to place. Then,
suddenly, the noise got louder, and the objects in my binoculars
resolved themselves. My mind and heart raced. I was seeing . . .
. . . a flock of ducks. As they flew by us they were just a few
hundred meters away, and they were unmistakably terrestrial waterfowl.
The noise we heard earlier was their quacking, muffled by
distance, and their otherworldly glow was just the reflected light of
the fleet of spotlights flooding the Shuttle pad. The ducks’ weaving
flight was obvious now, too. They appeared to be hovering when
we first saw them because they were so far away and were heading
roughly toward us.
I never allowed myself to think that they were truly UFOs, but
what was that odd feeling in the pit of my stomach while I watched