A liquid being ejected from a nozzle emanates from it as discrete, uniformly sized drops when the flow rate is sufficiently low. In this paper, an experimental study is presented of the dynamics of a viscous liquid drop that is being formed directly at the tip of a vertical tube into ambient air. The evolution in time of the drop shape and volume is monitored with a time resolution of 1/12 to 1 ms. Following the detachment of the previous drop, the profile of the new growing drop at first changes from spherical to pear‐shaped. As time advances, the throat of the pear‐shaped drop takes on the appearance of a liquid thread that connects the bottom portion of the drop that is about to detach to the rest of the liquid that is pendant from the tube. The focus here is on probing the effects of physical and geometric parameters on the universal features of drop formation, paying special attention to the development, extension, and breakup of the liquid thread and the satellite drops that are formed subsequent to its breakup. The role of surfactants in modifying the dynamics of drop formation is also studied. The effects of finite inertial, capillary, viscous, and gravitational forces are all accounted for to classify drastically different formation dynamics and to elucidate the fate of satellite drops following thread rupture. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.