Retro TELESCOPE Image Historical Flight Falcon 9 Upper Stage

[ralfvandebergh]

Historical retro view: Ground-based images I took of Falcon 9 upper stage of the Space-X Dragon C2+ Demo flight in 2012. The Merlin engine nozzle is clearly visible. Recently reprocessed to improved quality. At that time, the upper stage remained still in orbit for longer time so you had more time to have the luck to capture one. Lower image is a model of what you see.

This was the second test flight of the cargo Dragon and the third flight of the Falcon 9 rocket.


Images taken at 0.25 meter aperture using fully manually tracking using a guiding scope at low magnification.
The gif file is a live unprocessed view through the telescope (And in color).

Ralf Vandebergh
https://x.com/ralfvandebergh2

[ralfvandebergh]

NSF coverage for the mission: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28942.180