Rocket photo forces hand to purchase a new Nikon

An Atlas V (Atlas 5) rocket lifts off from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station en route to a geosynchronous orbit to facilitate U.S. military communications in the Middle East. This photo was taken outside FLORIDA TODAY headquarters in what some people would consider Rockledge, Melbourne, Suntree or just unincorporated Brevard County, Fla. Who knows?

Again with the streak, I know, I know. This is the same frame job that has appeared in all of my rocket launch photos from work at FLORIDA TODAY. It's simply my go-to spot along U.S. 1 when I only have minutes to step outside the office and set up my camera for a timed exposure.

For this one, I finally mustered the restraint to leave the shutter open, capturing the full arch as the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifted over the Atlantic Ocean. It was a swift flight, so the exposure was only 113 seconds. To achieve such a photo of an enormous Delta IV Heavy, for example, it might take closer to three minutes.

The cloud cover made the flight interesting. The first dark cloud the rocket passed behind was so light-canceling that I thought something had happened to the launch vehicle.

This rocket was carrying a communications satellite - part of the Wideband Global SATCOM constellation - that will assist U.S. military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe someday, this thing will spot Osama bin Laden as he tapes another death-to-America YouTube video.

Technically, the photo isn't bad. Quality-wise, it's irritating. There's something akin to an eye floater near the base of the light streak (Update: Finally, I retouched it in Photoshop). That's a direct result of dust on the camera's sensor. I have attempted to clean it myself, but it appears as though I'll have to take it to a professional. (I also could have taken the dust bunny out in Photoshop, but the software is on my Toshiba, which has been acting up recently.)

Additionally, there's a mirror image of the streak in the left-hand part of the photo. It's faint in the 600-pixel version above, but clearly visible at full size. I ended up with two instead of one parabola in the image.

Though my woes could be solved with a trip to the camera repairman, I have determined that I need a new camera. I've been coping with an entry-level Nikon D40 for two years now, and it's high time I got something that the semi-professionals or enthusiasts wouldn't mind being caught dead with. Maybe a D90 or even a D300? Here's to stimulating the economy.

Coming up: The next two launches from the Cape are scheduled on my days off. My fingers and toes are crossed for prompt flights - and a good deal on a new camera.

Delta launch | Attempt at shooting in 3 media fails, but I got 2

A Delta II rocket lifts off early Tuesday. I certainly could have stood to get more light into this photo.

Click on the "HD" button in the right corner (so it's red) to watch in high definition (again, I apologize for the jerkiness).

I set out for the beach early this morning to get a timed exposure of a Delta II rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.

I stopped in Cocoa Beach, near my old apartment, and walked onto the beach. This was the first night launch for which I haven't been at work, so to see the rocket bathed in giant spotlights was breathtaking. I was so captivated that I had to get closer. And getting closer would mean a timed exposure wouldn't be an option. My lens isn't wide enough to capture the whole sequence.

Jetty Park, near Port Canaveral, is 2.3 miles south of Launch Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It's the closest public viewing area for any launch. I decided I had to go there.

The gate for the park was closed, but a man at the entrance directed traffic through the outgoing lane. For a minute, I thought I wasn't going to get in. But I did, and unsurprisingly for a 4:34 a.m. launch, the place wasn't too crowded. Most people - including children, a Dutch couple and a man from Orlando who said he never misses a launch - complained that they were up too early. As for me, I was up too late.

On one side, the fishing pier at Jetty Park parallels the canal for ships making their way toward the port. On the other, it's a, well, jetty of large rocks. At the end of the pier, spectators had a clear view of the rocket as it sat on the pad. I found a table used for cleaning fish and started to set up my equipment.

I used only one segment of the tripod legs for my Nikon and plopped it onto the table. My video camera was set up beside the table with its tripod fully extended. I screwed my Pentax film camera to a 6-inch tripod and set it up atop the table.

I started recording video two minutes before liftoff. And within 30 seconds of the launch, I planned to lock the cable release of my Pentax to attempt a long exposure, then switch to my Nikon for some shots of the rocket lifting off the pad.

But for some reason, the cable release for the film camera wouldn't lock. And as I saw a glow coming from the pad at ignition, I abandoned the Pentax, which fell onto the table, and snapped away with the digital.

After several quick shots with the Nikon, I switched to my Canon high-definition video camera, attempting to track the rocket through it's flight. Doing that, however, was difficult with a tripod not really meant for video cameras. That's why you'll notice a lot of herky-jerky motions in the video.

In the first part of the video, you can hear my camera clicking away. When the clicking stops, that's when I take over the camera.

So I've got nothing to show from my film camera, and the digital shots came out slightly underexposed. I was worried sick about overexposure, which is what happened the first time I tried to shoot a nighttime shuttle launch.

Instead of quality, I went for quantity by trying to capture the launch in three media. It didn't work that well. In the future, I might have to set priorities.

This is just a frame grab from the video.

Contrails from the rocket blow in toward Port Canaveral (photo).

The no-rocket-launch blues

No launch, but there were clouds.

Another fueling issue prevented me from photographing a nighttime launch.

An Atlas V rocket was scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 9:24 p.m. Tuesday. But an engine valve in the upper stage of the 19-story rocket sprang a leak, relegating me to pictures of clouds at sunset. Last week, my lame fallback was the moon.

Unfortunately, I had already made the 35-minute trip to Port Canaveral, the closest public viewing site for a liftoff at Launch Complex 41, about 12 miles across the Banana River. Parking for launches is allowed along the waterside thoroughfare to Disney's cruise terminal. I was the first to arrive Tuesday, though, and that made me feel like a no-life loser. But I felt worse for the people I left behind who didn't get the text message from FLORIDA TODAY that said the show was off.

I'm trying to develop knowledge of the best sites from which to view launches. Probably the best resource on the Web is this site by Ben Cooper, a photographer and engineer at Kennedy Space Center.

I'm just trying to keep myself busy on my "weekend" days of Monday and Tuesday. But right now, the launch gods aren't cooperating.

Delta II launch | Look at that! Yes, they call it the streak

I assumed my usual stakeout position for Friday's rocket launch: beside the sign at the main entrance of FLORIDA TODAY's headquarters along U.S. 1 and the Indian River in Melbourne.

There isn't much you can do with a photo of a nighttime rocket launch other than take a long exposure of it streaking across the sky. Whoop-dee-doo.

In keeping with that conviction and with my run-of-the-mill rocket picture-taking technique, I shot Friday night's delightful lights from in front of the FLORIDA TODAY building with even more lights - from ground-based vehicles - streaking through the foreground.

It's pretty much the same frame job as my last photo of a rocket liftoff on the Space Coast. See that here.

But this time, I cranked the ISO up to 400, which allows more light to hit the camera's digital sensor. The shutter was open for only 52.2 seconds, as opposed to 86.6 on my previous try. That's because this rocket was a Delta II, a considerably lighter and less bulky craft than the monstrous Delta IV. It's a more agile vehicle, so it climbed quickly, allowing less time for an exposure.

After the liftoff and initial shot, I created a vertical version, left. In this photo, there's a slight errant streak on the left end of the main one. That's the ground-lit solid motors as they separated from the vehicle and fell toward the ocean.

The launch was a successful start for a NASA telescope called Kepler that will look for planets in the Milky Way that might sustain life.

I set up my camera and tripod just a minute before the liftoff. And minutes after taking the photos, I was inside, putting a staff photographer's work onto Page 1. His shot was all right.

Wednesday's nighttime show, starring shuttle Discovery on its mission to the International Space Station, should be more photogenic. I plan to start that stakeout five hours before liftoff to ensure a front-row seat at Space View Park in Titusville. There will be video, too.

Rocket launches - especially when it's a Delta IV - are so cool

An 86.6-second exposure captures a Delta IV Heavy rocket as it lifts over Cape Canaveral, with streaks from cars in the foreground. This is taken from FLORIDA TODAY headquarters in Melbourne.

I'm dedicated.

In a warm-up exercise for Inauguration Day, I braved the frigid Florida air four times Saturday night to get a photo of a rocket launch. The Delta IV Heavy is monstrous. I wasn't going to let weather stop me from seeing it.

United Launch Alliance set a liftoff time for the classified payload at 7:33 p.m., after it had been delayed a few times earlier in the week. But nonspecific "technical glitches" canceled launch times of 7:33, 8:13 and 9:13.

With each new time, I ran out of the FLORIDA TODAY office building where I work. I drove to the edge of U.S. 1, the main thoroughfare nearby. I planted my tripod onto the cold hard ground, readied my remote control and waited. And waited. My nose ran. I sniffled. I blew on my hands. It was probably about 50 degrees.

But with each new launch time, my phone rang. A co-worker told me three times that the launch had been delayed.

On the fourth try, at 9:47 p.m., I waited minutes before the launch to leave the building. Despite itching to see it, I had work to do, too. But the fourth time proved to be the charm.

So I know I can conquer the weather in Washington, D.C. But the crowds? To prepare for the people on Inauguration Day, I went shopping at Circuit City early Saturday.

GLAST blasts toward space, not Tampa

This is the view across the beach at Jetty Park of the Delta 2 rocket carrying a rather pricey space telescope.

Today was the much-anticipated and long-delayed launch of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST. It went up on a souped-up Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

I woke up early for the 25-minute trip north for a 11:45 a.m. liftoff. Wisely, I took time before I left to sign up for FLORIDA TODAY's launch updates via text messaging.

I dropped a whole Lincoln note for the parking fee at Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral. Most people were there for an easy, not-too-hot day of fishing and lounging on the beach.

But a few people knew what was up. We gathered on a boardwalk to the beach, a high vantage point from which to view launch pad 17B.

One oblivious beach bum came up and asked me, "Is there a launch or something?" I told him about it, and then he asked, "Where's it going?"

"Space," I said.

"No. When is it going?" he said. (I suppose I misheard him the first time.)

"Oh, 12:05," I said. Of course, I knew that because I had received inside information on my phone that said the launch was delayed 20 minutes.

The spectators in the vertical photo laughed when I told the bum that the rocket was headed for space. "Oh, I thought it was going to Tampa," one said. (It was going east, not west, so I doubt it, dude.)

When it finally lifted off, I - of course - messed up my camera a few seconds after it became airborne. I accidentally adjusted the settings dial to an automatic preset for people who don't know how to manually adjust the camera. I don't even know what it was for, but the photo came with an interesting silhouette, below, and the colors seemed better, too.

This was the closest I have been to the pad for a launch, and it was quite spectacular. Besides, GLAST rhymes with 'blast,' which makes for a perfect launch.

Accidental shot with the weird settings.

Bird bird, bird bird, bird
-Bambi

Beautiful rocket headed toward space (not Tampa).

Night rocket launch: still overexposed, but getting better

OK. I shot the Delta 2 rocket launch on the spur of the moment. I hadn't planned to do it, so I would say the result could have been worse.

I was editing stories at work early in the morning when I realized the launch was only five minutes away. I had lost track of the Windows clock in the corner of my computer screen.

I stopped agonizing over the commas in a story about a National Geographic photographer and ran out the door. And I mean, ran. My lone co-worker still there probably looked confused after such an abrupt departure.

I set up my camera near the FLORIDA TODAY sign that glowed in the dim moonlight. The launch was only seconds away, and I only had time for one test shot. I clicked it. The result looked a bit overexposed, so I took a few seconds off the shutter speed.

Then the sky lit up. And the rocket was about 45 degrees away from where I thought it would launch. Nowhere close to where my camera was pointed. Oops.

I readjusted the tripod. And the results are these two photos. The above one was the first, of course. Shuttle or rocket, they're both considerably brilliant at liftoff. I imagine people who live on the Space Coast are used to seeing their world suddenly light up in the dead of night.

My improvised "plan," which was drummed up as I ran toward my shooting location along U.S. Route 1, was to have the streaking headlights and taillights making up the bottom portion of the photo and the arching light trail of the rocket comprising the top majority.

I got a little bit of that effect in the photo below. I wish I had more road in the photo. In other photos, which didn't make the cut for The Offlede, I got too much road and not enough rocket. In this one, you can see the smoke behind the rocket, which successfully carried a Navstar Global Positioning System satellite into orbit. It was the 80th consecutive flawless launch of a Delta 2, the most reliable among all rocket types.

Read more here.