Category Archives: Space

February 10, 2024 · 23:42

Left Side, Window Seat

If you’re flying up or down the California coast any time soon, like, say, LAX, San Diego, Long Beach, or Orange County to San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, or Seattle, check the SpaceX launch schedule for launches out of Vandenberg.

If there’s anything that even might get off the ground while you’re over SoCal, get a window seat. On the left side of the plane if you’re flying from south to north, on the right side of the plane if you’re flying from north to south.

You want to have a view of the west. And the ocean. And the coast. And of Vandenberg.

This is the view to the west at 16:33 PST yesterday. That white streak in the upper center right is the contrail from Air China Flight #3126 from LAX to Shenzhen, China. (Okay, bad example, the cargo was unlikely to be looking out of the windows, but the pilots had a GREAT view! Work with me here.) Right about this moment a Falcon 9 was launching below and to their left, arcing up to the south and off-planet behind them. It would have looked spectacular!

Weather conditions were ideal for creating contrails, so I was able to spot the rocket with binoculars. (If the weather’s drier and there are no contrails, it’s needle-in-a-haystack time to spot a daytime launch.) As long as I didn’t look away or lose it I could follow the Falcon 9 through MECO (Main Engine Cut Off), staging (separation of the first & second stages), second stage ignition, fairing separation (the falling, tumbling fairing halves could be seen falling away for quite a while), and about 2/3 of the way to the southern horizon.

When I finally lost sight I checked and found that all that remained was this difuse bit of contrail, stretching from the northwest (in the bottom right) toward the southeast (upper left).

Oddly, I also experienced something that I’ve heard of in the Facebook group for Vandenberg launches – a sonic boom from the ascending booster. Folks in the Lompoc area (just a few miles from the launch site) hear the rocket’s roar, but folks in Ventura County are too far away for that. But they often report hearing what sounds like a sonic boom. I was skeptical that they would hear anything on ascent, but thought that it might be possible to hear the returning booster on an RTLS (Return To Launch Site) landing. But yesterday’s booster landed on the drone ship in the Pacific Ocean off of Baja California.

But about eleven minutes after launch, after I had come back into the house, the windows rattled and it sounded a LOT like a distant sonic boom. Now, you may have seen in the news that we had a M4.6 earthquake yesterday morning, and that (or an aftershock) will also rattle windows. It was a real attention getter! But I didn’t feel any ground motion or other symptoms when I heard the windows rattle, and the timing would have been right for a sonic boom created when the booster broke the sound barrier about a minute after launch.

Could be! I’ll have to pay more attention on future launches and not stop recording and go inside quite so quickly!

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Filed under Flying, Photography, Space

January 29, 2024 · 23:45

Launch Cadence

SpaceX has gone from a handful of launches per year to just under 100 launches in 2023. They plan to have well over that this year, with even more next year. While most of those launches are out of Florida where they have a couple of launch pads and two landing zones and two drone ships for recovery of the first stages, the launch cadence out of Vanednberg up the coast from us is going up as well.

Last year there were 28 launches out of Vandenberg by my count. For 2024 there are plans to have 50+, or basically one a week. Unless it’s cloudy (which happens, and they’ll launch anyway in many of those cases) I can easily see any night launch. The daytime launches are a little tougher to see from this far away.

The problem is that the times will change as launch windows come and go. With the Starlink launches there are generally multiple launch windows in a day, so if something isn’t quite right (the vehicle, the weather at the launch site, the weather at the landing site, etc) they can wait an hour or so and then try again.

Yesterday the first launch opportunity was just after sunset and would have given a spectacular “jellyfish” effect as the exhaust plume high up in the atmosphere was illuminated by the Sun far over the horizon while we were all watching from darkness. Unfortunately, that window got passed up.

The good news is that the launch went off about three hours later, and it was magnificent to watch.

The bad news was that I had to lug the tripod & camera gear back up the hill from the “good” viewing spot about halfway down. That location lets me have a much more clear view of the western horizon, without the palm trees across the street from our house being in the way. On the other hand, I did get to see a great sunset!

There will be a lot more opportunities this year to get a sunset jellyfish launch. I’ll be ready!

 

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Filed under Photography, Space, Sunsets

January 9, 2024 · 23:51

Launch Delay

There was supposed to be another Starlink launch out of Vandenberg on a Falcon 9 tonight about 21:00 local time.

It’s been grey, gloomy, drizzly, cloudy, and overcast here for days, but I started watching our western horizon about sunset and we’re looking great!

See those two tall, thin, phallic Italian cedar trees on the right? Falcon 9 will rise just to the left of the left-hand tree, arc up at about 45º behind that stand of palm trees, have first stage cutoff, stage separation, and second stage ignition just to the left of the palsm, and  then go over that telephone pole about halfway between the top of the pole and the top of the picture. From there it will arch back all the way to the southern horizon off to the left.

Double checking after sunset, we’re looking spectacular. T-3:00:00!

And then they scrubbed for unknown reasons and re-scheduled for tomorrow night / Thursday morning, with the window opening just about 01:00.

I don’t even have to check the weather forecast to know what that means.

Clear all day tomorrow…until about an hour before the launch window opens.

Some days if it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all!

 

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Filed under Photography, Space, Sunsets, Weather

January 4, 2024 · 23:36

About 25 Years Apart

Looking for something to share tonight, I ended up back in the pictures I took on my iPhone 13 just after Thanksgiving. We were visiting the Science Museum, primarily to see Endeavour, but also to see an IMAX film.

One of the pictures I took there reminded me of a picture I remember from just a month or so after I got my first digital camera, in 1999.

640 x 480 pixels. 100,512 bytes. Taken with an Epson digital camera that my dad gave to me. (He worked at Epson, got an early peek at these newfangled devices).

This is the entryway between the IMAX theater and the main museum lobby. Purple tinted skylight, several hundred gold balls hanging down.

It was July, 1999 and my three kids were with me, ages 9, 12, and 14. I was doing the single dad thing and it would be almost another year before I met The Long-Suffering Wife.

(There was no building out back with a Space Shuttle in it.)

4032 x 3024 pixels. 4,705,344 kbytes. Taken with an iPhone.

It was November, 2023 and two of my three kids were with me, ages 33 and 38.

The museum has grown considerably, and is quickly growing even more as the annex to hold Endeavour, the last flight-rated external fuel tank, and two flight ready solid rocket boosters, all combined into a vertical stack just like they would be when ready for launch.

The photographic resolution has skyrocketed. Today’s “older model pocket-sized supercomputer” (i.e., an iPhone 13) has forty times the resolution of yesterday’s cutting edge next big thing.

Welcome to the future!

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Filed under Los Angeles, Photography, Space

December 5, 2023 · 23:40

Endeavour

Did I mention that on the day after Thanksgiving I went down to the California Science Center near the USC campus and the Coliseum in downtown Los Angeles and saw the Space Shuttle Endeavour?

It’s just a tiny little bit freakin’ awesome.

Scorched tiles on the belly above us.

The business end with the three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs).

Twenty-five missions, from May 1992 until May 2011.

It’s on display until December 31st like this, then it will be off display for a couple of years. There’s a huge new building under construction next to this one where it will be displayed in the upright, “ready to launch” configuration.

In addition to Endeavour, the museum also has the last surviving flight-rated external fuel tank, and two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs).

Once they put it all together in a vertical configuration, it will look just like it did on the launch pad, ready to go to space. When you first come in from the parking lot you can see the two SRBs standing up, peeking over the top of the outside walls of the new building.

As you leave the exhibition, over yonder you can see the orange foam of that final external tank.

It’s going to be spectacular to see!

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Filed under Los Angeles, Photography, Space

November 24, 2023 · 21:55

Not NaNoWriMo, 11/24/2023

Normally, like, for the last thirty years (or more!), the evening after Thanksgiving our house would be lit up with the first wave of Christmas lights.

Tonight, the 94% illuminated Moon and bright Jupiter will have to do. The lights will start to go up tomorrow, but today was better spent with two of our kids.

Endeavour is at the California Science Center but will be going off display for a couple of years after December 31st. The new building is well under way and you can see the last existing external tank out in back, while the last two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) are now upright and visible over the construction barriers. When it’s all said and done, Endeavour will be displayed in a vertical position with the external tank and SRBs all assembled in launch position. It’s going to be freakin’ awesome! But for now, I hadn’t seen her yet and wanted to before she went off display, so the kids made sure that it happened. (I have no idea why everyone else in the picture was dressed in dark colors while I stood out like a KC Chiefs peacock…)

After that my son and I went down to Hawthorne to see the SpaceX flight-proven booster that’s on display there. Also an incredibly cool thing.

Priorities, baby!

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Filed under Family, Photography, Space

October 23, 2023 · 21:48

Falcon 9 Launch From Vandenberg

I’ve shared a number of pictures and (I think) one or two videos from when SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket out of Vandenberg Space Force Base, 115 miles to the northwest. They’re amazing when they’re right after sunset, pretty cool in the middle of the night, and a “challenge” to capture on film or video.

But I have a Nest security camera looking at the front porch. What does it see?

Here’s your generic, normal, daylight view, looking northwest-ish. Where’s Vandenberg? On the lefthand side, in the distance just to the right of that support pillar with the flag, you can see the northern flank of Castle Peak. There’s a bit of sloping hillside there between the pillar and the trees where the red-tailed hawks hang out (and attack me).

Watch there…

First a full-frame view, then zoomed in.

Hmmm, how to improve this? Probably easier to move the camera than to chop down that support pillar. Besides, if I hack away at that sucker I’ll NEVER get my security deposit back!

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Filed under Castle Willett, Photography, Space, Video

October 3, 2023 · 22:37

Pictureless

There was a truly spectacular ISS pass tonight, the station rising in the northwest just as it got truly dark and sailing about 80%+ across the sky before fading into darkness in the west. It was amazingly bright, something like Magnitude -3.9. I noticed the time just a minute before it was set to rise, so I didn’t have time to grab my camera and tripod and gear and get it set up in time. So I went out into the front yard and simply watched. It was wonderful.

The red-shouldered hawks were at it again, something like the 7th or 8th day in a row that they’ve been in the pine trees below us on the hill. I wonder if they might be building a nest nearby. For much of the time they were being raucous outside I was on a Zoom meeting and couldn’t go out to take pictures, but I listened to them from inside. They were loud enough so that the rest of the staff could have heard them if I hadn’t been on mute. I enjoyed listening to them, even if I didn’t see them or get any pictures.

I saw several lizards in the back yard, but never when I had my camera with me. I had my phone, but they weren’t that close, so I just let it go. We had a nice conversation about how warm it was getting again, nearly 90ºF today and getting even warmer for the week ahead. They enjoyed that news quite a bit, but I had to remind them to watch out for the birds. I’m not sure the hawks would bother with something as small as them, but the scrub jays and mockingbirds most certainly would.

The hummingbirds were out, starting to complain that the feeders are getting low. I was too busy today to clean and refill them, but I promised to look at it tomorrow. They’re fine for today, but they do get nervous. No pictures were taken.

The rose bush that had given me the one fantastic pink and white bloom a few weeks ago has decided to cough up a handful more. For some reason when I went out to get the mail I didn’t have my phone with me to take pictures. Huh! That almost never happens. But it did today. The blooms will wait for their closeups another day.

I happened to be out just before 17:00 when I caught the UPS 757 banked over right over our house to turn to final approach for Burbank Runway 08. It’s a regular flight, but sometimes they turn inside of us to the east, sometimes swing in more from the Porter Ranch area. It’s a honkin’ big plane (that’s an official aviation term) and when they cross overhead they’re just extending their flaps so it looks even honkin’er bigger. I just watched, enjoyed the way it floated through the air, listened as those two big engines spooled down as the power was pulled back.

All of these things happened without any photos to share or other proof that I experienced them. I simply experienced them and held onto the memories.

Which brings me to one of the two or three best scenes ever filmed:

Today, no rain. There might still be tears.

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Flowers, Space

September 14, 2023 · 22:30

Something Launched Out Of Vandenberg

I was fixing dinner at 19:40 when I got a text from my son. “Hearing something about a launch (Unannounced?) out of Vandenberg within the last few minutes?”

I stuck my head out the front door, facing west.

Well, that would be a big ol’ confirmation, right there!

The lower part of the exhaust trail, deep in the sunset atmosphere, is orange and red, turning white as it climbs up higher in the atmosphere where it’s still fully illuminated by the sun off in the west.

It’s odd that there wasn’t any announcement or webcast, so that rules out a SpaceX or ULA launch. A Minuteman III test, possibly?

Nope, turns out to have been the Firefly Alpha 3 launch at 19:27 PDT carrying a top secret Space Force payload named Victus Nox.

Great job, everyone! Let the conspiracy theory and calls to the police about alien invasions start!

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Filed under Photography, Space, Sunsets

August 30, 2023 · 23:05

Orange Super Blue Moon Rising

We interrupt our traipsing through past Worldcon trips to bring you today’s “Blue Supermoon” rising!

You couldn’t possibly have missed all of the hype. But the short (and factual) description is that tonight the Moon was full (happens every 29.5 days, more or less), it was a tiny percentage closer to Earth than average (its orbit is an ellipse, not a circle, so sometimes it’s a bit closer, sometimes it’s a bit farther away, perfectly normal and routine) which means it was a tiny percentage brighter than average, and it was the second full moon in a calendar month (which happens on average every couple of years because our calendar is weird and irregular and lumpy), and tonight all three of those things happened more or less simultaneously. The press had a field day.

First of all, the camera (and hidden image processing software) in the iPhone 13 doesn’t quite know what to do with an bright orange super blue Moon on a dark-ish, dusk-ish background. It does its best.

The good news is that it did better this time on focusing on the Moon instead of the telephone pole and trees. Not great, mind you, but better.

The good camera (Canon Rebel XT DSLR with a 300mm Tamron lens) is lousy in full auto mode being even older and more computationally primitive than the iPhone. But put it in manual mode and shoot a series of pictures with varying exposures and manually focusing, then something in that series is going to get close.

This is a LOT like what it looked like in terms of color and contrast. And yes, just coming up through the turbulent, hot, pea soup atmosphere over downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley it does look that distorted and misshapen.

As it gets up a bit and we’re not viewing it through quite so much icky atmosphere, the Moon rounds up and starts to get bright. Like really, really bright.

Which confuses the crap out of the camera, which sees all of that black and wants to do a 1/2 or 3/4 second exposure. Knowing (a little bit) better, I overrode it for a 1/250 second exposure. Still too bright! Should have gone for 1/1000 second. Or shorter.

The iPhone never gets over that and constantly overexposes the scene. But it does a decent job of catching the city spread out down below.

Now that it’s way up overhead, even a 1/1000 second exposure would be way, way too long. I don’t think my older (13 years? 15 years?) DSLR will do an exposure short enough to show detail on any full moon, not just a super duper blue Moon. Not without going to some sort of neutral density filter to cut down on the light.

Regolith is reflective as all get out, especially for just vacuum cured grey dust and pulverized rock!

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Space