East coast rocket launch on Sunday
 

12:52 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 13 from Launch Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern shore.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/113108/...#ixzz37GFWOOkD

Thanks, Spexx. I alerted my buddy in South Bethany just in time. :thumb:

Hey! That's where I'll be!

Couldn't see shit. Stood watching for 20 minutes, but it was too hazy and overcast. :sniff:

Yeah it was cloudy around here, and I drove to the local high point hoping for a break, but it was no good.

I kept reading, with pleasure, about the various delays since it meant I'd be back in town in time, but then completely forgot about it. I watched the last one, and clearly saw it.

Next launch of the Orb-3 mission is now scheduled for October 24, 2014, with a targeted lift-off time of 7:52 p.m.

That's a night launch, baby, and should look very nice all up and down the Mid-Atlantic.

weather permitting.

Yeah. It's not as convenient for me on Monday, but if the sky is clear, we're going to go to the end of the runway at National Airport, where there are no trees, and the view is good, and we'll have sandwiches for dinner while we wait for the launch. Then off to a meeting at 7PM immediately after the launch.

I want to try to get pictures, but don't know how to set up the exposure. My camera has a 60 second maximum shutter speed, and I think I'll want to use all 60 seconds. I guess I'll want to use the lowest sensitivity on the sensor and a tiny aperture. But don't want to go so small that the light from the rocket isn't visible at all. I need to try to research this somehow. Only get one chance to get it right.

My camera has a fireworks setting. I wonder how that would work

Pretty well, but it would show up as a bright dot. I'm looking for a long streak.

Full sized viewing map.

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Key to understanding what to look for involves learning the great circle route of the ISS. On Monday, the ISS will pass over the western tip of Lake Superior, over Detroit, and then over Wallops Island on a path headed SE out to sea. IOW the rocket must chase the ISS. That says most north of Delaware may not see too much and would have to watch mostly just east of south to see anything. Virginia coast should get a best view.

With each day delay, the trajectory moves even farther south. For example another two day delay means it must chase it when ISS passes over S Carolina (even farther south) and goes SE out to sea.

However a launch at 5 PM EST on 29 Oct would chase an ISS passing over CT. The more Eastern trajectory might be observable from the Jersey shore and Long Island. And maybe low in the sky from Philadelphia. Depends on how direct (vertical) that Orbital Science rocket must rise up.

What kind of camera do you have glatt?

It's an old Panasonic. I can control shutter speed, f stop, sensitivity, zoom, and if optical stabilization is turned on. I'd put it on a tripod and use the 2 second countdown timer to trigger the shutter.

After looking at a bunch of similar pics on Flickr and seeing what they all did, I'm going to use ISO 200 with a wide open aperture focused on infinity. I'd like to know how high in the sky this will get so I can compose properly. I already know exactly where on the horizon the launch site is, but not how high it will go.

It will be flying pretty much away from me, so I won't get much of a pleasing arc like I would if I was on Cape May.

So your question is more one of framing and composition rather than one of exposure, over or under?

Well my original question was exposure, but then I answered it myself. The answer is that everyone uses different exposures and they all seem to work.

So now I've moved on to composition. This is gonna be 110 miles away, so I want to zoom way in, but not sure just exactly how far to zoom in. And I only get one try, so I have to get it right.

OK folks. space.com has an excellent resource for how to see the launch.

I learned that in my location I'll be able to see it 96 seconds after takeoff and it will get to a maximum altitude of 12 degrees above the horizon.

Go to the link above, but here is another map of the areas where it ill be visible. The further away you are, the lower it will be on the horizon, so you need to get on a hill with no trees. Or a big parking lot with no tall buildings nearby. Those of you up near Philly will have a nicer view of the parabola flight path than I will.
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Oh, and I'm excited because the space station will go flying directly overhead for me just 2 minutes after the launch, going almost directly towards the rocket launch. It will be obvious from my location that these two space craft are planning to meet up. I wish I had a huge fish eye lens that could capture in a 5 minute exposure the ISS at one end of the sky streaking directly towards the rocket at the other end of the sky.

The astronauts on the ISS will be able to easily see the launch if the windows are facing that direction.

The ISS path:

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Is there a page where you can get up-to-the-minute updates at launch time? I would like to try to see it again, but it would be nice to know it's not been delayed before heading out.

I've been watching their facebook page ("NASA's Wallops Flight Facility"), and there is a phone app too ("What's Up at Wallops.")

But they don't seem to have the staffing to keep these things updated by the minute.

NASA TV will be broadcasting it live starting an hour before and they would have up to the minute stuff. Maybe Space.com would be good.

I dunno. I have the same question.

Ok, a couple more questions.

How confident are you at your ability to align your camera at the launch point / point over the horizon where the rocket will initially appear?

At 110 miles away, I sincerely doubt that even at maximum zoom the rocket will fly out of your frame, assuming it was in the frame to begin with. However! Having said that, here's a link to a table and some formulae that will let you calculate just how much sky you will be able to see with your camera, assuming you know some of its physical characteristics like maximum zoom focal length, sensor size, etc.

As for exposure, I've found the greatest success for nightime long exposure shots to set the iso/sensitivity to the minimum, including activating any neutral density filters if available, and cranking the shutter speed to the slowest possible value (15 seconds on one camera I used to take almost all my pictures with), and the smallest possible aperture, since you're not interested in any kind of shallow depth of field and it will further reduce the amount of light getting into the camera.

This combo will produce the trails effect you're talking about. There will be plenty of light coming in from the source, a pinpoint of light against the relative dark, and since it's moving, you'll get a streak. Maximizing the exposure will also give the longest streak, since the sensor will be exposed to the maximum distance the subject will travel.

If you're uncertain about aligning the camera, you still have all the same issues, but by widening your field of view, you only increase your chances of catching the launch outside the center of the frame. I think if you do know where to aim the camera, you'll probably be happy with the maximum zoom.

I learned the rocket will reach a height of 12 degrees above the horizon at my location, so I can definitely zoom in too far so that it flies out of frame. I'll have to eyeball it with my fist as a 10 degrees representation. That will tell me how far to zoom in.

I went back to a star shot I took at Bryce canyon and that was ISO 80 at f/2.8 for 60 seconds. It made stars nicely exposed, and this rocket will be brighter than stars, so I think that same exposure will do nicely.

Now my only concern is when exactly liftoff is. They keep saying it's at 6:45. But I want to know if that means 6:45:00 or if it's more like 6:45:25. I want to start my 60 second exposure just before the rocket comes in to view, which is T+96 seconds where I am.

I imagine I'll just wait until I first see it and then press the shutter button. I wonder if it's worse to jiggle to camera a little bit pressing the shutter button, or not jiggle the camera by using the 2 second timer but then miss 2 seconds of the visible liftoff.

I think I'll just try to press the shutter button gently.

I'm quite confident. The rocket is launching from pad 0A at Wallops which is located at 37D 50' 02.04" N, 75D 29' 15.93" W. If you get in Google earth and draw a measuring line with a ruler from that point to your viewing location, you can see what objects in the foreground it all lines up with. I'm planning to sit at the corner of a soccer field, and look at the parking lot between two specific buildings at the heliport on the other side of the river about two miles away. The buildings are easy to pick out because they are next to a small control tower.
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The only way it might be a problem is if the large parking lot at my preferred viewing location is full and cops are preventing parking on the grass. I had considered this, but nobody in my life is talking about the launch except for the folks here in the Cellar. It should be pretty empty.

If I couldn't park there, I would have to find another viewing location in a hurry. And we could be screwed.

Regardless of the outcome of your photographic safari, I hope you're prepared for the post launch-'em depression. :unsure:

"scrubbed due to a boat in range area."

We had fun playing with the pencils on the bench.

Actually it was really incredibly cool at the end of the runway. It had been a couple years and I had forgotten.

Space station supply launch called off in Va., space junk scare requires lab's relocation
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/Nation/20...FbjaZjuSpLi.99

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A space station supply ship will have to wait another day to fly.

Orbital Sciences Corp. counted down to the final several minutes Monday evening for the launch of its unmanned Cygnus capsule from Wallops Island, Virginia. But a boat was in the restricted danger zone, and the liftoff was called off.

The Virginia-based company is expected to try again Tuesday.

Just five hours earlier, the space station had to sidestep a piece of treacherous junk. NASA says debris from an old, wrecked Russian satellite would have come dangerously close to the orbiting lab if not for the maneuver.

The unmanned Cygnus holds 5,000 pounds of space station cargo for NASA.

Orbital tweeted that the launch will now take place Tuesday night at 6:22 p.m.


http://www.wboc.com/story/27024327/a...ps-how-to-view

Cloudier today and won't be very dark at all. I may not even attempt to watch it. The timing is bad too, I'd have to really rush to get out the door. Sucks. Last night was so perfect.

Did any of you see the ISS go by last night? That was pretty cool.

Well once again, nothing! I went to the high point in my county and waited and waited, and... no rocket! This is so disappointing! I --

What?

Private Orbital Sciences Rocket Explodes During Launch, NASA Cargo Lost

I was glad it was cloudy here and I didn't attempt it. Was in my FIL's room visiting him and glanced at my watch and realized the launch had been 5 minutes before and I glanced up and they were showing it on TV. Cool! But wait. That's not right. Holly crap, it blew up!

UT, did you see a flash on the horizon or anything?

No, from this far away, the rocket has to get pretty high up to be visible at all.

I was daydreaming about driving down there, to see one in person from the visitor's center or from Assateague... huh. Maybe not.

I thought there might be an orange glow on the distant horizon when it exploded. But a hundred miles is pretty far away.

150 and change for me... 120 for J

My high point is about 400 feet elevation so it's not a mountaintop. I can see the top third of the tallest Philly buildings, at about 50 feet elevation, 18 miles away. Some of that is blocked by terrain I think.



edit: added link to high point

Boom... big badda boom.

There goes launch pad 0A. They have a couple more launch pads, but I don't think any of them are set up for these Antares launches. It will likelytake some time to fix 0A or set up one of the others.

I timed my trip home so that I was going over Commodore Barry Bridge at 6:24. Even at 220', I saw nuttin. It was very cloudy.

Ooops

And Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo just blew up mid flight.

This is pure speculation, but I'm going to throw it out there.

Russian or Chinese hackers did this to both of them.

Don't forget NASA's early days when everything blew up.

From a Cessna at 3000 ft...

From National Geographic...
That sounds like a fun job. :eyebrow:

I reckon those "sky scanners" watching the launch through wire guides in window frames are 90 degrees apart from each other, like E and S or NW and NE. That would give at least one of them a chance to see a deviation from the intended flight path if that deviation was directly toward one of the watchers, and thereby not crossing any wire in the frame.

Or Bond supervillain Elon Musk!

If SpaceX were public stock, it would be going up right now.