North-East US rocket launch?

This message is going to make me sound like an absolute loon, but here
goes anyway.

I live in upstate NY about 60 miles west of Albany and about 1 mile
south of US Route 20. This afternoon (12-21-2003), I happened to look
out my kitchen window which faces roughly West North-West and saw a
contrail rising from over the horizon at what appeared to be a very
sharp angle into the sky. My eye followed the contrail up and about
"halway up" the sky I saw what looked like sun glinting of an
aircraft.

Normally I would just think this another aircraft, except this
appeared to be climbing in alititude at a very high velocity. It took
only about 30 seconds before it had climbed from about 30 degrees off
the horizon to 180 degrees (in other words, directly overhead) and I
could no longer see it.

The other interesting thing I noticed is that from the horizon to
about 20 degrees, there was a second contrail which paralleled the
contrail from the object I watched and then seemed to end. This second
contrail was about the span of my first three fingers distance from
the first if I held my hand at arms length.

As I said, I'm going to sound completely crazy, but I have never seen
an aircraft climb so fast. Is there any possibility I saw a rocket
being launched? If so, from where? Did I see a military jet?

If I could give a more exact time I would, but at the time I simply
dismissed it as a passenger jet, but over the past few hours this has
been really getting to me. Anyway, it was from between noon and 3 pm
Eastern Time.

Go ahead and call me a nut, I think I deserve it, but damn... this
just bothers me.

No Such User wrote:
This message is going to make me sound like an absolute loon, but here
goes anyway.

I live in upstate NY about 60 miles west of Albany and about 1 mile
south of US Route 20. This afternoon (12-21-2003), I happened to look
out my kitchen window which faces roughly West North-West and saw a
contrail rising from over the horizon at what appeared to be a very
sharp angle into the sky. My eye followed the contrail up and about
"halway up" the sky I saw what looked like sun glinting of an
aircraft.

Normally I would just think this another aircraft, except this
appeared to be climbing in alititude at a very high velocity. It took
only about 30 seconds before it had climbed from about 30 degrees off
the horizon to 180 degrees (in other words, directly overhead) and I
could no longer see it.

180 degrees off the horizon is the other horizon.
Get out a protractor.

The other interesting thing I noticed is that from the horizon to
about 20 degrees, there was a second contrail which paralleled the
contrail from the object I watched and then seemed to end. This second
contrail was about the span of my first three fingers distance from
the first if I held my hand at arms length.

As I said, I'm going to sound completely crazy, but I have never seen
an aircraft climb so fast. Is there any possibility I saw a rocket
being launched? If so, from where? Did I see a military jet?

If I could give a more exact time I would, but at the time I simply
dismissed it as a passenger jet, but over the past few hours this has
been really getting to me. Anyway, it was from between noon and 3 pm
Eastern Time.

Go ahead and call me a nut, I think I deserve it, but damn... this
just bothers me.

On 21 Dec 2003 23:23:24 -0800, (No Such User)
wrote:

This message is going to make me sound like an absolute loon, but here
goes anyway.

I live in upstate NY about 60 miles west of Albany and about 1 mile
south of US Route 20. This afternoon (12-21-2003), I happened to look
out my kitchen window which faces roughly West North-West and saw a
contrail rising from over the horizon at what appeared to be a very
sharp angle into the sky. My eye followed the contrail up and about
"halway up" the sky I saw what looked like sun glinting of an
aircraft.

You probably saw a transaltantic flight that originated in Chicago or
there abouts that had hitched a ride on the jet stream and was passing
directly overhead, giving it the iillusion that it was going "up"
instead of "at" from your point of view.