Here is the view from my position (Astronaut Road). I chose a North West position to primarily focus on the orbiter after her roll program i.e. when is on her back and curving up. I tried to caption them so one gets an idea of the action in the pic too (not that it needs much explanation)
I was about 3.9 miles (appox) and I used a Canon 1 Ds Mk III with a 600mm L IS (handheld). Here it is...and i got a ton more..
Hope the dimensions dont screw up the thread (sorry in advance for that).
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http://www.iloveplanets.com/sts%20129/4A6U9734wwnam.jpg 4.
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Here is the view from my position (Astronaut Road). I chose a North West position to primarily focus on the orbiter after her roll program i.e. when is on her back and curving up. I tried to caption them so one gets an idea of the action in the pic too (not that it needs much explanation)
I was about 3.9 miles (appox) and I used a Canon 1 Ds Mk III with a 600mm L IS (handheld). Here it is...and i got a ton more..
Hope the dimensions dont screw up the thread (sorry in advance for that).
Wow -- those are great shots.
Hope the dimensions dont screw up the thread (sorry in advance for that).
Please attach the photo's next time and do not embed them in the tread.
Great photos, realy love them !!
Thought i would add mine now that i have had a little time to go threw them. Video later. All from the causeway. I had a great time!
For those of you who are planning on attending the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-129 next week, and who are interested in joining myself and three of the MaxQent.com members for an NSF dinner after launch on Monday, please send me a PM with your name and cell phone number that I can reach you at next Monday.
The dinner plan:
Where: Dixie Crossroads (that’s a seafood place in Titusville).
When: 4 hours after liftoff (~6:30p.m.) on MONDAY, November 16.
Sorry this took a week to post, but here are a couple of pics of us at Dixie Crossroads. It was great to meet up with you guys! Note: Rockshrimp are excellent!
Sorry this took a week to post, but here are a couple of pics of us at Dixie Crossroads. It was great to meet up with you guys! Note: Rockshrimp are excellent!
No prob on the late post, we've a bit busy ourselves, enjoyed meeting all of you.
So, entering now into (possibly) the final phase of this thread ... landing!
I'm in Florida, 150 miles south of KSC, and will be driving up to KSC on Friday morning. I can not drive up sooner than that. With nominal landing time around 9:45am, I was wondering how close to KSC I would need to get to hear the sonic boom. Here are some random quotes that I got from Googling around.
"I live 100miles south of the Cape just north of West Palm Beach (across from Lake Okeechobee) and even though the Shuttle is still invisible at 80,000ft there the house rattles from the double sonic booms as it goes over. Anywhere in West Palm, Stuart, Vero Beach, Melbourne and up to Titusville you'll know when it goes over."
"Altitude is irrelevant; when coming in over the US on past missions, it could be heard even at 40 miles altitude during entry." (that's 200,000+ feet)
"Those who live near and around the Kennedy Space Center are accustomed to hearing the double booms of a returning shuttle, but those located under and close to the Shuttle path, perhaps all the way back to the Pacific coast, may also hear the booms as well. "
"From a location in the nation's midsection or over the northwest United States, where the altitude of the shuttle will be in the range of 100,000 to 200,000-feet, it will take time for the shock wave to propagate down to the ground. Sound travels at roughly 1,100-feet per second, so depending on where you live relative to the track, it could be anywhere from 90 to 180 seconds after the shuttle has passed on by before you hear anything."
Obviously those last two are from a landing of a mission whose groundtrack took it across the US, which isn't likely this time, but they do illustrate that the sonic boom is apparently still heard even when the shuttle is that high up, thousands of miles away from KSC.
Can someone comment on these are all accurate? What about crossrange distance?
Sorry this took a week to post, but here are a couple of pics of us at Dixie Crossroads. It was great to meet up with you guys! Note: Rockshrimp are excellent!
gah!...i'm craving those fried corn fritter things now. They were a meal by themselves.
gah!...i'm craving those fried corn fritter things now. They were a meal by themselves.
No kidding, and I see you're from Austin too
Just got a great view of both vehicles from London, England at about 5.13pm. Orbiter was trailing ISS by an inch.
Yep 5.12pm from here in Sheffield,
looking south as the ISS and Atlantis passed Jupiter !
Thanks. I guess that means they'll go through the lock an hour or so earlier. I may go down today and see if I can find any more out.
Sorry to have been so long following this post up, but I thought I'd give this info as it may help viewers of future launches.
The lock keepers couldn't help on the Wednesday.
Port Canaveral lock is at the coordinates I quoted earlier, and is indeed accessed via Mullet Road as ChrisC suggested. There is a well appointed public viewing facility there, which is nominally open from 0700.
So, working from the times rdale kindly pointed me at, I turned up at 0700 on the Thursday to discover from a fellow enthusiast that
Liberty Star had already passed through at about 0630....
However
Freedom Star came through at about 0830!
, having passed through the drawbridge on route 401 (clearly visible from the lock) about 15 minutes earlier.
So, based on my experience, I'd suggest getting down to the Canaveral Lock at least 1h45m before the times the Stars are due back at their berths. If you can find those out, you should be home and dry.
It's worth it, you'll have a great view from the lock-side.. Photo attached. And while you're waiting there's some superb wildlife viewing of pelicans, herons and egrets fishing and manatees browsing.
(
LostinSpace - I'm guessing we were standing a few feet from each other???)
So, entering now into (possibly) the final phase of this thread ... landing!
I'm in Florida, 150 miles south of KSC, and will be driving up to KSC on Friday morning. I can not drive up sooner than that. With nominal landing time around 9:45am, I was wondering how close to KSC I would need to get to hear the sonic boom. Here are some random quotes that I got from Googling around.
"I live 100miles south of the Cape just north of West Palm Beach (across from Lake Okeechobee) and even though the Shuttle is still invisible at 80,000ft there the house rattles from the double sonic booms as it goes over. Anywhere in West Palm, Stuart, Vero Beach, Melbourne and up to Titusville you'll know when it goes over."
Can someone comment on these are all accurate? What about crossrange distance?
I live in Palm Beach and I've only ever heard the sonic booms once, when I drove out to Lake Okeechobee at lunch time and parked where it appeared the shuttle would be passing overhead. I wasn't able to see it (too high in altitude at that point), however I most assuredly heard the double sonic booms. Keep an eye out for the landing tracks, they will show you what part of FL the shuttle will be passing over. To hear it at Lake Okeechobee, the shuttle came from the south, passed over or near Cuba and then came right up the middle of the state.
I think normally it comes in over Tampa, but I'm sure someone else with more info can chime in on that.
As a side note, here's what the launch looked like from the press site:
I found some time after my return to Germany after covering the launch of STS-129 and would like to share some of my photos. Below you find only a small choice. For more photos please visit
http://www.stefan-photopage.blogspot.com/I had a great time and it was the best launch I have seen so far. Canīt wait to go back.
Here's the ground tracks:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts129/news/landing.htmlYou want to be as close to the flight path as possible.
Sometimes it comes in where it travels up the state and makes a turn over Fort Pierce/Vero Beach, I've heard that they are very loud in that area when that's the case.
If they land on the second chance (orbit 172), people in Orlando will get a nice Black Friday surprise.
I live in Palm Beach and I've only ever heard the sonic booms once, when I drove out to Lake Okeechobee at lunch time and parked where it appeared the shuttle would be passing overhead.
You want to be as close to the flight path as possible.
Thanks guys. I'm very aware of the landing ground tracks (posted by Andrew above), but I'm trying to get a sense of CROSSRANGE distance -- how close I have to be to that ground track to hear it. If they come down on the first attempt, which seems likely, I may very well be
at best 20 miles away from the ground track when it flies over around 9:40am.
For any of the later attempts I'll be right at KSC, it's just that first one that I'll be barely catching.
I'm also interested in crossrange because I'm wondering how hard to urge my relatives in Palm Beach to keep their ears peeled. The first attempt ground track has it entering Florida over Naples and heading NNE over the west coast of Lake O. That's a good 50-60 miles from Palm Beach -- sounds like that may be too far.
Just saw the ISS and STS, just two fist-widths apart from just north of New York City, on schedule and very bright. The two scooting along in the same part of the sky was very impressive. (And I've seen this before.)
(Couldn't find the ISS viewing thread!)
A great ending to our Thanksgiving Day. Also check out the just-past-first quarter moon and Jupiter tonight. They are wonderful, even in binoculars.
bob
