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Five Minutes During NASA's OCO-2 Satellite Launch

Star trails shot covering 5 minutes of the satellite's journey into space after the launch, captured as ten 30 second exposures, then combined into this image.  My overall coverage of the launch was a little more involved.  I first placed myself high on a hill to get above the fog.  Of course then I couldn't see where the rocket would launch down in the fog.  So I used the application +The Photographer's Ephemeris to show a +Google Maps image with the sun and moon angles on top.  So I could see relative to both sunset shortly after 8 pm and moon set around 11 pm approximately where the rocket would launch and emerged from the fog.  

I knew that the Milky Way would move to the Southwest by the time of the 3am launch, so I decided to set up a camera to also capture a time-lapse video of night images following the Milky Way, and ending up at more or less the right point by 3 am to also catch the rocket launch, then continue until 4 am.  I verified the movement of the Milky Way through 3 am in an iPhone app called StarWalk.  

So I shot a time-lapse of the moon setting at 11 pm with one camera and telephoto lens, started the Milky Way tracking camera with a wide angle lens, went to sleep for the next 3+ hours, then woke up 40 minutes ahead of the launch to start a telephoto time-lapse looking directly at the launch point.  Once I had the second time-lapse camera going with an external intervalometer timer, I was free to capture it in live video on a third camera as well.  

I figured that it would be pretty comical to see me operating 3 cameras, so I wanted to have a fourth, +GoPro camera also capturing video of me doing all of this with the rocket launch occurring in the background, but I was also setting up an iPhone to play the NASA TV live feed to have the mission coverage and countdown as background narration for all of my live video.  For some reason I was having trouble getting my iPhone to connect (although I had done it earlier for practice).  I managed to get NASA TV running on a second iPhone, but at the last moment the launch seemed to occur just a little early, so I ran out of time to finish everything in progress and start that "behind the scenes" video in time.

I made a blog post yesterday with a link to a new version of my time-lapse video footage including these images, on +Vimeo : http://www.MyPhotoGuides.com/2014/07/nasa-launch-orbiting-carbon-observatory-OCO2.html
#NASA    #NASASocial #space #news #science #OCO2

NASA’s OCO-2 Orbiting Carbon Observatory – star trails shot covering 5 minutes of the satellite’s journey into space after the launch.

Blog post with latest time-lapse footage:http://activesole.blogspot.com/2014/07/nasa-launch-orbiting-carbon-observatory-OCO2.html
#NASA #NASASocial #space #news #science #OCO2

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67 thoughts on “Five Minutes During NASA's OCO-2 Satellite Launch”

  19. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    Great question +Rien Van Beek, I first placed myself high on a hill to get above the fog.  Of course then I couldn't see where the rocket would launch down in the fog.  So I used the application +The Photographer's Ephemeris to  show a +Google Maps image with the sun and moon angles on top.  So I could see relative to both sunset shortly after 8 pm and moon set around 11 pm approximately where the rocket would launch.  I knew that the Milky Way would move to the Southwest by the time of the 3am launch, so I decided to set up a camera to also capture a time-lapse video of night images following the Milky Way, and ending up at more or less the right point by 3 am to also catch the rocket launch, then continue until 4 am.  I verified the movement of the Milky Way through 3 am in an iPhone app called StarWalk.  

    So I shot a time-lapse of the moon setting, started the Milky Way tracking camera, went to sleep for the next 3+ hours, then woke up 40 minutes ahead of the launch to start a zoomed time-lapse looking directly at the launch point.  Once I had the second time-laspe camera going with an external intervalometer timer, I was free to capture it in live video on a third camera as well.  

    I figured that it would be pretty comical to see me operating 3 cameras, so I wanted to have a fourth +GoPro camera also capturing video of me doing all of this with the rocket launch occuring in the background, but I was also setting up an iPhone to play the NASA TV live feed to have the mission coverage and countdown as background narration for all of my live video.  For some reason I was having trouble getting my iPhone to connect (although I had done it earlier for practice).  I managed to get NASA TV running on a second iPhone, but at the last moment the launch seemed to occur just a little early, so I ran out of time to finish everything in progress and start that "behind the scenes" video in time.

    You can see my resulting video on +Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/99906771

    (I'm going to add some of this planning and set-up info to the description above.)

  26. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    I'm using the iOptron SkyTracker +Randall Bruce , which under normal circumstances can produce time-lapse video which "tilt" along with the objects in the sky.  While there is some adjustment for latitude to enable sky tracking, it lacks sufficient adjustment to make the plane which the tracking motor rotates within (perpendicular to) perfectly level.  So it's really not designed for horizontal-to-the-horizon camera moves, and you have to have the right combination of sloped ground, tripod adjustment and possibly weights to hold the camera/motor from tipping the tripod over to pull off horizontal pans.  http://youtu.be/B64NJfiZBiY

    Of course all of the reviews I could find for the device were entirely positive, so they were probably actually "astroturfing" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing) sponsored ads which fail to include the FTC's required disclosure: 

    FTC Guidelines: Are You Making The Right Blogger Disclosures?
    http://bloggylaw.com/ftc-guidelines-blogger-disclosures/

    #Disclosure: New FTC Social Media Guidelines for PR
    http://www.instituteforpr.org/2014/02/disclosure-new-ftc-social-media-guidelines-pr-practice/

  59. Andrew Wisler
    Reply

    Very cool, +Jeff Sullivan .  I actually photographed my only (but hopefully not last) NASA launch last year from VA (the LADEE launch from Wallops Island in September 2013 — image on my profile).  It is one of the most exciting things I have done with a camera, heck, they're just thrilling to watch.  I will definitely keep an eye out for more in the future.  Cheers.

  61. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    +Andrew Wisler – Looks like there's launch at Wallops in 2 days!  July 11, 2014 — 1:40 p.m. Eastern
    Mission: Orbital 2 Commercial Resupply Services Mission to International Space Station
    Description: Launching from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Orbital 2 will deliver cargo and crew supplies to the International Space Station. (Targeted launch time is 1:40:27 p.m. EDT)

  62. Andrew Wisler
    Reply

    Very nice, +Jeff Sullivan. Unfortunately, I won't be anywhere near Wallops Island this week, but for future reference the parkway between Williamsburg and Jamestown (closer to the Jamestown end) offers some excellent views of the trajectory from Wallops over water for some nice reflections. The image on my page is uncropped at 100mm on a FF sensor, to give an idea of the perspective. And I met the nicest people night fishing there who were nonetheless completely uninterested in the light show, which I can't understand ;-).

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