Oh boy, the barge is about 170 miles away.I might try for Santa Ynez Peak with my 2000mm telescope w/ 4k video camera to avoid the marina condition. Looks like the sun will be above to the left where the barge is, not ideal viewing condition......
Quote from: Jdeshetler on 01/04/2016 06:36 pmOh boy, the barge is about 170 miles away.I might try for Santa Ynez Peak with my 2000mm telescope w/ 4k video camera to avoid the marina condition. Looks like the sun will be above to the left where the barge is, not ideal viewing condition......The barge will be far below the horizon, even from there. According to the Earth Curve calculator ( https://dizzib.github.io/earth/curve-calc/ ), you will lose sight of the stage below the horizon when it drops below ~4600 ft in altitude.
Jdeshetler, nice, 30deg is maybe not ideal but should still be OK. When are you going down?Also - how do you know the barge location? Is it confirmed they will use a barge and not return to Vandenberg?
How long in advance is good to be in the place?
Is there a particular location along W. Ocean Ave for that's best for viewing? I'm planning to drive up from LA to watch the launch.
there's likely no cell reception in those area
Anybody knows if the police bothers people that just pull over on W. Ocean Ave?
- W. Ocean Ave, as far as I know, the "closest" to the launch pad, that however is not directly visible. Hopefully police will not harass people at the side of the street. Not sure if it's allowed to camp for the night.- S. Ynez Peak, should give the best view of the rocket launch from a distance; I still do not understand if one could see the launch pad from there
I'm also considering going if weather is good. My main concern is Falcon having higher chance of scrub compared to Atlas. Maybe I'll take Monday off as a buffer.
Actually cell reception is decent in the area. I always had the webcast running during the countdown -- twice at Ocean/Renwick (Atlas 5) and once at the weather station (Delta 2).
- W. Ocean Ave, on launch day it will be crowded so don't worry about police. As for camping overnight, there are plenty of lodging options just 5 minutes away in Lompoc, why not get some good sleep indoors and drive back the next morning as early as you want?
- S. Ynez Peak, never been there but I'm curious too. Won't get the spectacular liftoff roar or close-up view, but on the other hand will be able to see the ascend from the side. I'm also wondering about pad visibility.
Quote from: xcel102 on 01/05/2016 08:56 amI'm also considering going if weather is good. My main concern is Falcon having higher chance of scrub compared to Atlas. Maybe I'll take Monday off as a buffer.Yes, that is a good idea - anybody knows if there is a backup date/time?PS why is there a 30s window in this kind of launch? It's not like they have to chase the ISS, I do not see why they could not launch at any time of the day or the night if they wish
In what orbit will Jason-3 fly?To ensure continuity of the global sea level record, Jason-3 will fly in the same 9.9 day repeat track orbit as all previous Jason missions, meaning the satellite will make observations over the same ocean point once every 9.9 days. The orbital parameters are: 66.05 degree inclination, 1380 km apogee, 1328 km perigee, 112 minutes per revolution around the earth.One of the primary objectives of the Jason program is to monitor sea level rise, a challenging task considering the need to maintain high levels of accuracy and precision from one satellite to the next over multiple decades of time. One way to help reach this goal is to avoid gaps in the data record by launching each new Jason satellite while the older Jason satellite is still operating properly. In the first six months after launch, Jason-3 will be flown one minute behind Jason-2/OSTM, in order to detect any offsets between the missions. Subsequently, Jason-2/OSTM will be moved to different 9.9 day orbit to provide additional data coverage.
I have performed my own analysis on whereter one would be able to see the launch pad from S. Ynez peak, and it seems it's not possible (see chart). However, I will probably still go up to have a look.The chart uses publicly available elevation data to calculate a profile, from SLC-4 on the left to S. Ynez peak on the right.