This is the United Launch Alliance AEHF-5 satellite launch. With a launch time of 6:13am (ET) and a sunrise of 6:48am, the downrange plume caught the rising sunlight perfectly. There's even a hint of crepuscular rays emanating from the horizon. This is a 251-second exposure captured from Palm Shores, Florida, looking across the Indian River Lagoon. The shadowy figure on the dock is a fisherman, net fishing, but he sure paused to watch the launch. Afterward, he asked me if the rocket exploded, and I assured him it did exactly what it was supposed to do.
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CRS-15 by SpaceX - Final, final edits. Wow. Edit: Now that I'm at my computer, and the adrenaline has calmed (just a bit), I can properly describe this shot: this is a 277-second exposure of the #CRS15 #Falcon9 rocket launched by #SpaceX at 5:42am this (Friday) morning. The plume was illuminated by the rising sun, and it was just amazing. Details: ISO100, 277-seconds, f18 shot with a Canon 5D4 and a Rokinon 14mm lens. (Field edit from the roof of the VAB, pic: me We Report Space) — at Kennedy Space Center.
While rumors swirl around about the possible loss of the #Zuma, launched last night by #SpaceX atop a #Falcon9, may I present Streak(s) #2, another SINGLE, 464-second exposure. In a possible act of photographic overkill, I was running three different cameras in roughly the same spot last night for the Zuma launch (and landing!). Because I've shot both OG2 and CRS9 from this place at Jetty Park, I knew the vertical shot would work fine (see my post from last night), but I wanted to experiment with some foreground. So, I set the second DSLR (really, my primary camera, a Canon 5D4) with some of the Jetty in the foreground. A few moments before the Sunday, January 7, 2018, 8 pm (ET) launch, two things happened: I began to worry that I was too low to catch the first (and very high) re-entry burn, and I realized I had forgotten to clean the lens (a Rokinon 14mm). I wasn't about to start fussing with the lens, but I did pan up a bit. So the result is shown here: spots around the bright streak (as it stands, I did a lot of spot removal in Lightroom) and only a small bit of the sizable crowd made it in the frame. In my haste to get something posted, the cleaner vertical shot won out over this one (it needed very little in the way of post-processing). The exposure was perfect, although the exposure time is 8-seconds shorter than the vertical shot only because the shutter release likes to mess with me and release itself. Eight seconds in and this camera ended the exposure, thus causing me to grab the shutter release quickly and hold the button down for 464 seconds. (I was going to work in a topical jab at my button size and/or function, but have thought better of it.) As for the third camera, I need to wait a few days to see if that shot worked. Details: ISO100, 464-second exposure, f18 with a Rokinon 14mm on a Canon 5D Mark IV (full-frame) body. (The stage separation was amazing; you can see some of the dance in this photo, although this image, even zoomed in, doesn't d
Achievement Unlocked: Attempt a Pad Streak With a direct nod to those who blazed the trail before me, I present my attempt to pull off a rocket streak using a pad camera, during the day. With apologies to anyone I'm forgetting to acknowledge in this tag-fest, the first time I saw this kind of shot was Bill Ingalls' fabulous pad streak of a Soyuz. Alan Walters' pad streaks are amazing, and John Studwell and Bill Jelen have joined the party as well. Ben Cooper is doing next-level streak imagery; specifically, the landing streak he did is the stuff of legends. And, it was Bill Jelen aka Mr. Excel who, after successfully capturing a pad streak last launch, brought an extra camera to my house the other night with the specific suggestion that I try the streak. (The camera is actually Jared Haworth's camera that he leaves in Florida for We Report Space to, well, report space.) So, here it is. This is actually 2 frames, both of them 20-second exposures shot through a 10-stop ND filter. I'm using 2 frames to bring out some of the detail that was obscured in the first (the launch) frame; by the time the second exposure fired, much of the cloud had dissipated. Initial edits were done in Lightroom, the composite was done in Photoshop and then final edits were done (again) in Lightroom. Again, my thanks to my photographic colleagues who I am so fortunate to learn from, and imitate. (Photo by Michael Seeley / We Report Space) — at Launch Pad 39-A.
At 5:07pm (ET) on June 3, 2017, SpaceX successfully launched the #CRS11 #Falcon9 rocket, carrying a previously flown #Dragon capsule to resupply the International Space Station. This was the 100th launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and the first time a previously flown (aka "flight-proven", per Elon Musk) capsule was used as the payload. (Photos by Michael Seeley / We Report Space)
The #SES10 #Falcon9 launch by #SpaceX w/ the "flight proven" #CRS8 1st stage, seen from the pad. (Pic by Michael Seeley / We Report Space)
So when I said a moment ago that I was done with the gratuitious and excessive edits to my CRS10 images, apparently I was kidding. The response to the raindrops was quite positive, so much so that for this edit, I'm fully embracing the ascetic, taking it in an almost laughable direction. (I can almost hear Jared Haworth groaning when he sees this edit.) Edits done in Lightroom and then Color efex Pro. (Photos by Michael Seeley / We Report Space)
#GOESR #AtlasV Twilight shot: Denied. This is a completely hacked shot. It's a combination of two frames taken off my backup streak camera. The first frame was taken at 5:20pm as the sun was setting. She sky was just brilliant, and the sun was throwing lovely oranges and reds downrange. The second frame is a 163 second exposure of the streak, taken at 6:42pm. I'm showing it here to show a version of the shot we were hoping for, but as the launch slipped to the end of the window, we ended up shooting a full nighttime launch. I'm still not sure what issues United Launch Alliance needed to work out (and then the range got involved, also adding a few minutes to the delay), but despite missing the twilight, it was still a really lovely launch. Tech specs: Frame 1: 13 second exposure, f7.1, ISO 100 through a 10 stop ND filter Frame 2: 163 second exposure, f20, ISO 100 Both were at 10mm (on a crop sensor). Frames processed in Lightroom and then stacked in Photoshop.
Shots from the pad during the launch of the SpaceX Falcon9 CRS9 mission to resupply the International Space Station.
This is a single, 483 second exposure of the Falcon9 CRS9 rocket, launched at 12:45a on July 18, 2016 from CCAFS.
This photo was chosen as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for July 21, 2016. View it here.
This image was also used in the November, 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine. Link to the article is here.
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