The flame from the solid fuel boosters was several degrees long, clearly visible to the naked eye, and after separation I could see the boosters, also with the naked eye, as two glowing dots, with the vehicle another dot between them, quickly leaving them behind. In the glass it was spectacular.

Canaveral is several hundred miles N of my house, so I could see the reddish (probably due to atmosphere, it becomes yellower the higher it goes) booster exhaust and the contrail easily, and the spacecrat arch to the E over the Atlantic. At it's highest point, it was about 20 degrees over the N horizon. It looked like a firework going up a mile away, except it was visible for about a minute before it was too far downrange to see.

I got my neighbors out to watch, one was a French Canadian snowbird who owns a winter home on my street, the other had a friend visiting, and his 6 year old kid saw it, first shuttle launch for both. The contrail remained for a long time.

I've been watching launches from Tampa, and now Lauderdale, since before the Apollo days. But I've only gone to the Cape and seen one close-up: the first Mars mission, the one that proved there were no canals but plenty of craters on the planet. They are clearly visible, both day and night, but you really have to go see one from a couple of miles away to appreciate just how much energy it takes to lift even a few hundred pounds of metal off the planet. The only thing I've personally witnessed that impressed me more is watching an aircraft carrier simultaneously refueling four destroyers during a gale at sea.