East coast rocket launch on Sunday
 

12:52 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 13 from Launch Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern shore.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/113108/...#ixzz37GFWOOkD

Thanks, Spexx. I alerted my buddy in South Bethany just in time. :thumb:

Hey! That's where I'll be!

Couldn't see shit. Stood watching for 20 minutes, but it was too hazy and overcast. :sniff:

Yeah it was cloudy around here, and I drove to the local high point hoping for a break, but it was no good.

I kept reading, with pleasure, about the various delays since it meant I'd be back in town in time, but then completely forgot about it. I watched the last one, and clearly saw it.

Next launch of the Orb-3 mission is now scheduled for October 24, 2014, with a targeted lift-off time of 7:52 p.m.

That's a night launch, baby, and should look very nice all up and down the Mid-Atlantic.

weather permitting.

Yeah. It's not as convenient for me on Monday, but if the sky is clear, we're going to go to the end of the runway at National Airport, where there are no trees, and the view is good, and we'll have sandwiches for dinner while we wait for the launch. Then off to a meeting at 7PM immediately after the launch.

I want to try to get pictures, but don't know how to set up the exposure. My camera has a 60 second maximum shutter speed, and I think I'll want to use all 60 seconds. I guess I'll want to use the lowest sensitivity on the sensor and a tiny aperture. But don't want to go so small that the light from the rocket isn't visible at all. I need to try to research this somehow. Only get one chance to get it right.

My camera has a fireworks setting. I wonder how that would work

Pretty well, but it would show up as a bright dot. I'm looking for a long streak.

Full sized viewing map.

Attachment 49380

Key to understanding what to look for involves learning the great circle route of the ISS. On Monday, the ISS will pass over the western tip of Lake Superior, over Detroit, and then over Wallops Island on a path headed SE out to sea. IOW the rocket must chase the ISS. That says most north of Delaware may not see too much and would have to watch mostly just east of south to see anything. Virginia coast should get a best view.

With each day delay, the trajectory moves even farther south. For example another two day delay means it must chase it when ISS passes over S Carolina (even farther south) and goes SE out to sea.

However a launch at 5 PM EST on 29 Oct would chase an ISS passing over CT. The more Eastern trajectory might be observable from the Jersey shore and Long Island. And maybe low in the sky from Philadelphia. Depends on how direct (vertical) that Orbital Science rocket must rise up.

What kind of camera do you have glatt?

It's an old Panasonic. I can control shutter speed, f stop, sensitivity, zoom, and if optical stabilization is turned on. I'd put it on a tripod and use the 2 second countdown timer to trigger the shutter.

After looking at a bunch of similar pics on Flickr and seeing what they all did, I'm going to use ISO 200 with a wide open aperture focused on infinity. I'd like to know how high in the sky this will get so I can compose properly. I already know exactly where on the horizon the launch site is, but not how high it will go.

It will be flying pretty much away from me, so I won't get much of a pleasing arc like I would if I was on Cape May.