[AZ-Observing] Re: Atlas rocket launch
- From: "Rick Tejera" <saguaroastro@xxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:32:57 -0700
Dan,
No joy from Glendale, I had apparently incorrectly guessed that the delay in
launch made it too dark to have the exhaust plume illuminated.
Not really sure about the northward turn. All launches from VDB are to the
south for safety reasons. A northward trajectory would send it over
populated areas. Not to mention the prodigious amount of fuel such a turn
would take and the structural stress.
My suspicion is that was the booster drifting after staging. I'm curious.
I'll look into it a bit and if I find anything out, I'll post here.
Clear Skies
Rick Tejera
Editor SACnews,
Public Outreach Coordinator
Saguaro Astronomy Club
Phoenix, Arizona
www.saguaroastro.org
saguaroastro@xxxxxxx
K7TEJ
On Behalf Of Dan Heim
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 17:13
To: AZ Observing
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Atlas rocket launch
Fellow Stargazers,
That Atlas rocket launch from Vandenberg on Monday was clearly visible
from here in New River. I shot a 1 second interval time-lapse, and
caught some good images. Lacking SRBs, there ain't much of a trail from
an Atlas, but you can clearly see when the booster goes out and the
craft veers northward, no doubt into a polar orbit as this was an NRO
satellite. Since I was using a fixed shutter setting of 1.5 seconds, the
acceleration shows as increasingly longer "smears" of the image, the
payload at that point only reflecting sunlight. See it at:
http://www.dfacaz.org/astrophotos.html
It's third from the bottom in the list.
Dan Heim
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