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#480
by
sts126
on 13 May, 2009 16:47
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anyone else on the then & now tour the next day. I'm trying to locate the silo where the Challenger debris was buried. should've had the iphone map tracker going to better keep track of route of tour
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#481
by
Chris Bergin
on 13 May, 2009 16:49
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anyone else on the then & now tour the next day. I'm trying to locate the silo where the Challenger debris was buried. should've had the iphone map tracker going to better keep track of route of tour
Her recovered remains are laid to rest here:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=5462.0(Or disrespecfully left to rust and rot, as the case really is
)
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#482
by
bkellysky
on 13 May, 2009 18:42
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anyone else on the then & now tour the next day. I'm trying to locate the silo where the Challenger debris was buried. should've had the iphone map tracker going to better keep track of route of tour
I was on the 12:50pm tour and our guide pointed out the silo's location. Perhaps that was the one you were on. I snapped a photo from the bus and I'll see if it can remind me of where we were in the tour.
Added later: It was somewhere after the Redstone (Mercury suborbital flights) stop and before the Cape lighthouse. The info on the related thread looks like it answers your question.
As you can see from the photo, there is nothing special to mark the location, at least from the road. If I remember correctly, the silo is in the middle of the four towers near the center of the photo.
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#483
by
bkellysky
on 13 May, 2009 19:00
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Here's the photo. The thin towers are visible on the original, against the sky, just to the left of the concrete slab.
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#484
by
rhubarb5
on 13 May, 2009 19:02
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Here are the photos I took from a kayak at the east end of Haulover Canal. I haven't heard of many people on the forum watching from the north side. Thank you to everyone here who answered questions for the out of town guests like myself.
(Sorry they aren't as great quality as the others but I didn't want to risk dropping an expensive camera into the canal!)
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#485
by
bkellysky
on 13 May, 2009 19:08
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Here's an avi from my Canon A40. 3x zoom, gives a good idea as to the view we had from the western end of the Causeway.
There is a microphone on the camera, so there is audio. I was even more excited than a remember. The stack just seemed to wait so long before it moved off the pad. A really long 6.6 seconds!
Sorry I moved the camera at the end. I didn't know it was still recording since I couldn't see the LCD screen in the intense sunlight. Not that I wanted to watch through the viewfinder anyway! The 8x25 IS binoculars were very helpful.
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#486
by
dmurphy
on 13 May, 2009 19:22
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Hi all!
I just wanted to take a moment and thank the great folks contributing here at NSF. Without you, I would've been very out of touch during the launch. Thanks to the NSF Forum and my BlackBerry Storm, I had up-to-the-second information.
I had the privilege of being on the Causeway for the launch (snagged my LTT tickets last August!) - managed to get a great seat out there, with a wonderful view of the pad.
One of the gentlemen next to me was following NASA on Twitter. At 1:48, he turned to me and said, "oh, we may have a problem with ice - they haven't made a decision yet", and I had the great pleasure of informing him that he was woefully out of date - the outstanding coverage here was way, way ahead of the NASA twitter feed.
This was my 1st launch, and I had a GREAT time. It was a super-friendly crowd out at the Causeway, and the launch is truly something to behold. Words, pictures, and videos just don't do it any justice. You have to see it to believe it!
... and thanks to NSF, I had more news than anyone out there!
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#487
by
bkellysky
on 13 May, 2009 19:27
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Hey, dmurphy, I get shivers all over again just seeing the great photo you got!
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#488
by
psloss
on 13 May, 2009 19:31
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#489
by
dmurphy
on 13 May, 2009 19:47
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Hey, dmurphy, I get shivers all over again just seeing the great photo you got!
;-) Thanks! I had a Canon Rebel XT + a Sigma 50-500 lens out there... amazing that I could get a shot like that from 7 miles away!
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#490
by
unintelligible
on 14 May, 2009 11:43
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I had the privilege of being on the Causeway for the launch (snagged my LTT tickets last August!) - managed to get a great seat out there, with a wonderful view of the pad.
Boy based on your picture we were practically standing right next to each other. If I know where I think you were, the porta-potties were to your left?
(I was also getting my news from NSF on my iPhone, the coverage was excellent.)
(Also there was no smell from the porta potties in my location.
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#491
by
Bubbinski
on 14 May, 2009 13:14
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This was my third launch viewing and the first from the causeway. And I'm SO glad I did this, this was the best view I ever had of the launch, and I wasn't hiding behind trees this time.
I enjoyed seeing the whole vehicle rise from behind that cloud of smoke, and that SRB exhaust is so bright! I also got a great look at the side of the stack through the binoculars as it was climbing, and I got a few shots with my newly purchased Panasonic Lumix, which have been seen by those at the NSF dinner. (Once I get back home to UT I'll be able to get them uploaded and posted here, I don't have access to a working cd drive or card reader at the moment). If you haven't been to KSC to view a launch I highly recommend that you do so...and you'll need to hurry unless they pass the extension.
3 launch trips to KSC, 3 on time launches. Can't ask for any better than that, and I guess I was born under a rabbit's foot or something, I've heard of people who've made multiple launch trips without catching a launch. I know that it certainly would have been difficult to catch STS-119.
p.s. - I too was next to the porta potties to see the launch.
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#492
by
LSenus
on 14 May, 2009 15:48
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As we said before, this was our (LMSenus & I ) first launch. We were out on the causeway near First Aid Station ECHO. According to Google earth we were 6.93 miles from the pads. Thank heavens for the long lenses, but the high humidity made for some clarity issues. We have over 600 shots to go through and process from the Sunday night shots in Tittusville, through the Then and Now tour shots from Wed. 13th. Here's a couple quick ones for now...
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#493
by
LSenus
on 14 May, 2009 15:54
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#494
by
dmurphy
on 14 May, 2009 15:56
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In Flight...
That's wonderful!! What sort of lens were you using?
I had a Sigma 50-500 lens attached, and didn't want to handhold that thing!
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#495
by
astrobrian
on 14 May, 2009 16:15
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That is one heck of a shot there, congrats
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#496
by
LSenus
on 14 May, 2009 16:35
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In Flight...
That's wonderful!! What sort of lens were you using?
I had a Sigma 50-500 lens attached, and didn't want to handhold that thing!
Tamron 200-500mm on a Slik Pro500DX tri-pod. for the launch pad shots. Then free-hand with the same lens for the in-flight shots.
Trying to process these shots on a 12 laptop screen is proving to be a bit challenging.
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#497
by
dmurphy
on 14 May, 2009 16:40
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In Flight...
That's wonderful!! What sort of lens were you using?
I had a Sigma 50-500 lens attached, and didn't want to handhold that thing!
Tamron 200-500mm on a Slik Pro500DX tri-pod. for the launch pad shots. Then free-hand with the same lens for the in-flight shots.
Trying to process these shots on a 12 laptop screen is proving to be a bit challenging.
Wish I had a steadier hand ... but the "Bigma" is *heavy*! (and, a rental
Those are OUTSTANDING shots - don't mind if I borrow them, do you?
I hear you on the processing - it finally sunk in back at the hotel just how much of an antique my 15" PowerBook G4 is ... (it's a 1 GHz model from 2003 ...) The fact that it works at all is amazing - it's been dropped several times, I've spilled an entire root beer in it, and yet it keeps on chugging!
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#498
by
LSenus
on 14 May, 2009 16:54
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The 200-500mm weighs in just over 5lbs. Granted a bit heavy, but with practice the steadiness will come. Practice photographing airlines in flight while at home. Check your flight patterns for airports near you and you should be able to guess the altitudes based on headings. Once you can make out the livery of the plane, you know you've got it.
Feel free to save any image I post for private use.
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#499
by
LMSenus
on 14 May, 2009 17:36
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In that last photo, anybody know what those "reflections" are in the clouds? Leo and I think he might have captured shock waves in the clouds, but we're not sure.... maybe some other photographic artifact?
)
