Absolutely amazing. First time I've witnessed a Vandenberg launch before, and only saw it due to sheer luck. I turned into my neighborhood (no streetlights allowed) and first saw what I believe was the second stage as a bright "star" with a huge cone of light trailing. In it's wake was the remnants of the first stage already weaving a curled, glowing "snake" of noctilucent-like light with fringes of color. I jumped out of my truck, grabbed the wife from the house, and we ran out to view it. Within the course of 5 minutes, the whole scene had substantially dissipated. She saw only the fading minutes of the show, but even that was exciting to her (or at least she feigned it for my benefit). Great stuff, can't wait for the next one. - Bernie -----Original Message----- From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of ketelsen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 9:01 AM To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [AZ-Observing] Thursday Photo Op Hi All- The enclosed came across my e-mail yesterday. For those of you who have never seen a roclet launch during dusk, it can be quite impressive as the rocket/plume gets up into direct sunlight. Check it out! -Dean LAUNCH ALERT Brian Webb Ventura County, California E-mail: kd6nrp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Web Site: http://www.spacearchive.info 2005 September 20 (Tuesday) 04:36 PDT ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VANDENBERG DUSK LAUNCH The first Vandenberg AFB dusk launch in nearly three years is slated for Thursday, September 22. The Minotaur booster is scheduled to lift- off from south Vandenberg at 19:24 PDT, the start of a 16-minute launch window. Several minutes later, the rocket will place the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Streak satellite into a polar orbit. As seen from Santa Barbara, lift-off occurs 29 minutes after sunset. The Minotaur is expected to climb into sunlight during the second stage burn at about T+90 seconds. The exhaust plume will be illuminated by the sun and may create a nice display visible across a large part of the Southwest and western Mexico. The launch may be visible until nearly T+13 minutes. For information on launch viewing and photography, refer to: www.spacearchive.info/vafbview.htm www.spacearchive.info/vafbphoto.htm -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.