30 minutes of stars + 163 seconds of rocket: It was an amazing night for a rocket launch. Seen here is the United Launch Alliance #SBIRSGEO3 satellite, launched tonight at 7:42pm (ET) atop an #AtlasV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with great support form the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. I had the streak ready within a few minutes, but this stack of star trails proved to be a bit more time consuming to process. The camera was running for nearly an hour, but a few early clouds and my own carelessness junked up a few of the frames, which of course I didn't notice until I started stacking. So this is the last half of the series, with a 4 mid-series frames removed. Congratulations to the ULA team on their first launch of the year and for completing the first launch of the year from CCAFS. Specs: 56x30-second exposure frames shot at ISO500 and f5.6 (trails) and then the streak is a single, 163-second exposure, all shot through an 11-24mm lens (at 11mm) on a full-frame body. Initial processing done in Lightroom, stacking done in Photoshop, with final edits done in Lightroom.

Reprocessed, with apologies if you're tired of seeing images from the launch.

30 seconds of stars + 163 seconds of rocket: It was an amazing night for a rocket launch. Seen here is the United Launch Alliance #SBIRSGEO3 satellite, launched tonight at 7:42pm (ET) atop an #AtlasV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with great support form the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.

With a nod to the always great Ben Cooper, this is a non-star trail look at how clear the sky was as the rocket laucnhed. It's really amazing watching the rocket fade into the night sky against a sea of stars, and this image (very similar to Ben's) comes only semi-close to representing the view. I can identify at least one constellation: Ursa Minor, which is barely visible through the xenon spotlights at the pad. 
 Specs: One 30-second exposure frames shot at ISO500 and f5.6, captured 4 minutes before liftoff and then the streak is a single, 163-second exposure, all shot through an 11-24mm lens (at 11mm) on a full-frame body. Initial processing done in Lightroom, stacking done in Photoshop, with final edits done in Lightroom.