OT: Rocket launch Options

[914GT]

Any of you southern Cal. folks see the launch this evening from Vandenberg? A Minotaur satellite was launched about 7:25 PM PDT. Got a great view of it from Tucson. Here's a short video clip I made. It's not great due to difficulty focusing and some trees in the foreground.

[swood]

Yep, really bright and clear in all that marine layer. There was this really cool cone coming off the tail.

I have a decent video thats about 6mb, dont know how to upload it. And won't because I talked on it and I sound like Homer J.

DOH!

[campbellcj]

I saw it on the way home from work tonite (I live in western LA near the Ventura county line) -- I immediately figured it was a rocket launch or space plane test or something like that. Normally I have my camera with me, but Murphy's Law of course meant it was at home tonite!

The trippy things were that (a) it appeared to do a loop at one point and (B) the smoke trail was incredibly bright (white against the twilight sky) so must've had some crazy chemicals and/or reflective particles in it.

[TonyAKAVW]

ARGG!! (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/mad.gif)

I just got back from trying to see that thing. I'd been wanting to see it for a couple days now and the stupid fog was in the way. My wife and I drove down to the beach hoping to see it and it was fogged in. So we drove up to the top of Palos Verdes, and saw nothing, it was probably too late. It would have been a great spot though, we could see the top of the marine layer below us.

Thats a great picture btw.

Last time I saw a rocket launch from Vandenberg was a daytime launch when I was living in Santa Barbara. I could see the bright point of light that was the rocket plume and with my binoculars even made out the body of the rocket. That one was a Delta I think..

Last time I saw one of these twilight launches was in San Diego several years ago.

-Tony

[Lou W]

Saw it here in Eastern Riverside county, Hemet. Saw the second stage too. Quite a site to see. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/mueba.gif)

[Katmanken]

I've seen almost every launch from Cape Kennedy from Apollo 12 to the 3rd shuttle launch.

My all time favorite was an Atlas night launch at about 45 minutes after sunset. Lit up the night sky on the way up.

Then the sucker got high enough to pop out of the earth's shadow and got lit up by the sunlight.

A sight I will never forget.

Ken

[Allan]

I used to work on south Vandenberg at a guidance station that was about 1/3rd of a mile from SLC 2 and 3. We would sneak outside during a launch and you talk about bright and loud. The Atlas launches would produce a low frequency rumble that would make some people (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/barf.gif) .

[zymurgist]

I remember when I was a kid growing up in south Florida, about 150 miles south of the Cape. Apollo 17 was a night launch. That Saturn V was so bright, I was able to see the exhaust from my front yard. It was so cool... it looked like a slow moving bottle rocket.

[SGB]

I wenrt to the Appolo 17 launch back when my Uncle worked for Hughes... I guess I was 10. They used to let spectators pretty close, and he got us into the VIP area. It was a total sensory experience. I remember that you could feel it and smell it (like ozone...). That was a lot of energy going away fast!

[Katmanken]

I've been close to two launches.

Second one was one mile away from a night Delta launch. It was a night launch and I was in a fenced in area. The ground shook, you heard it immediately (not 7 minutes later) and the whole area lit up like daylight.

First one was a Titan launch. A bunch of us went up to Port Canaveral Jetty park from college and were partying. The launch was abnormally low and unusually north to south (spook bird) and came screaming in over Jetty Park. Mitch was standing on a Coral rock (and a little drunk at the time (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/beerchug.gif) ) when the shock wave knocked him into the water.... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif)

Ken