Similar to Heathrow Director's post, if you travel down the M66 in Gtr Manchester to Middleton Rd from the M62 junction on a bright, clear winter night it is possible to see aircraft bound for Manchester heading North before turning finals for 23R.
At that point the distance between the observer and the aircraft can be over 15 miles.
With landing lights on they can be seen at first as a small dot of light. As you travel roughly South and the aircraft travels North the aircraft light appears to stand still yet grow rapidly in size as the closing distance decreases.
At its "maximum" size the light then rapidly diminishes and vanishes.
What actually happens is the aircraft turns onto finals for 23R and the landing lights point away from the observer. As at that point the aircraft is many miles from the observer, strobes are unlikely to be seen, there is no noise and the light appears to have been a mirage. On busy nights with multiple arrivals from the South more than one aircraft can be seen at once, the lights can appear to dance and some reports of UFOs from people who have seen the phenomenon have talked of lights appearing, growing, vanishing and then repeating the cycle!
How easily human observation can be fooled!