MV-6 launch pictures of the "Suzaku" x-ray astronomy satellite

[FScott]

Hi all. I started a new thread so that people aren't scrolling to the bottom of the old thread:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...ad.php?t=82642

Anyway the atmospherics were the worst possible for viewing the launch. It wasn't just hot, humid, and hazy there was fog as well. The viewing site was 3 km away and the launch site was almost a total white out.

The haze removal technique of dynamic range stretching each RGB component separetely is however an extremely powerful tool and I was able to recover some excellent shots. One of them made NASA's "astronomy picture of the day" today:

http://apod.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050712.html (click image for full size)

The orginal is attached for comparison. The web site image was a crop. I attached the full frame post processed as well.

I ended up shooting jpeg for speed. I got over 30 frames at 5 fps before the 20D slowed down. I miss having the raw files but it turned out well anyway. I manually focused before the start of the sequence, took a meter reading 5 seconds before launch on manual exposure control. I used the ball head on my tripod to steady the lens which really worked great even though it was moving very fast. I never lost the rocket out of the center of the frame for over 100 frames.

Parameters were:

Canon 20D + Tamron 1.4x TC + 70-200 F4L at 200mm + Ultra II 2GB
Aperture = 5.6 - 1 stop = f8.0
shutter speed = 1/1600 s
ISO = 400

Processing:

Levels adjusted individually for each color to stretch the dynamic range, contrast adjustment, noise reduction with NeatImage pro plugin, USM with 150/0.6/3.

I'm slowly processing the rest of the frames. I've done the first 35 of 100 frames before it gets lost in the clouds at T+51 seconds. The last frame really only has about 4 bits of color information and looks kind of surreal but cool nonetheless. When you reduce the dynamic range, you got a lot of speckle noise but NeatImage does an amazing job of reducing the noise without reducing sharp detail.

When I get a bit more time (ha ha) I'll make a simple web page rather than post a whole bunch of images here. However if anyone is interested I could post a few more.

Finally, I've probably over-processed the images so feel free to give me hints on how to kill the haze without overdoing whatever I overdid.

-- Scott (from Uchinoura Space Center, Japan)

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=kagosh...1.086636&spn=0.092955,0.095727&t=k&hl=en

[Wazza]

Great shot, considering the conditions.

A pity it wasn't perfect weather.

[PhotosGuy]

Great shot, & an excellent PS job, too!

[robertwgross]

Is it my imagination, or does the rocket booster appear to be leaning on the launch pad?

---Bob Gross---

[Danny Boy]

I thought that same thought Bob. "What is with that" ==> Doing my Seinfeld imitation.

[FScott]

Originally Posted by robertwgross

Is it my imagination, or does the rocket booster appear to be leaning on the launch pad?

---Bob Gross---

Bob,

The rocket booster is on a launch rail which tilts to aim the rocket for its initial flight path. It is tilted in this case towards the ocean which is just off the photo to the right. The rocket motors can steer the rocket. The rocket nozzles for each stage are gimbled and are canted with hydrolic actuators. Just before launch they light off small solid fuel booster motors to give the rocket some steerage before the first stage motor lights off.

If the rocket has a problem and they need to use the thrust termination charges to "cut down the rocket" they want this to happen over the ocean. All shipping was cleared out for several hundred miles in a wedge from the launch site. Same with aircraft.

-- Scott.

[wolverinesr1]

i love it, great clean up job in PP i would like to see more of them, but i can wait for the web page if no one else chimes in


oops ,just realized this was an old thread. sorry

[FScott]

Originally Posted by wolverinesr1

i love it, great clean up job in PP i would like to see more of them, but i can wait for the web page if no one else chimes in


oops ,just realized this was an old thread. sorry

Old or not, I still haven't made a nice gallery of the launch. Thus here are a couple of more pictures. The first is early in the morning of the day of the launch before they moved us all 5km away to the viewing site. I thought about stowing away in the forest to stay closer but chickened out. The second is just after the launch vehicle clears the launch rail.

-- Scott.

[FScott]

Okay, I can't resist. Here is one more. This one is the 2nd to the last one before I lose it in a cloud bank. There are only a few bits of color information left after contrast stretching each color channel to reduce the haze, but it gives a cool posterized effect.

-- Scott.

[wolverinesr1]

wow, thanks for posting the additional photos. very,very nice. awesome even

[FScott]

Thanks. It was a lot of fun, although I was there for 3 months on that trip alone.

-- Scott.

[Jon Foster]

Not sure if this has been asked yet but what was the workflow to clean up the haze in the shots?

Jon.

[FScott]

Originally Posted by Jon Foster

Not sure if this has been asked yet but what was the workflow to clean up the haze in the shots?

Jon.

Hi! I did a bunch of research and testing for this before the day of the launch. The workflow I ended up with is the first post in this thread. Nothing was optimal, and I'm not sure I would make the same choices now, especially jpg over raw, but it turned out pretty well. I shot jpg purely for speed which now that I think about it some more was still probably the right decision.

-- Scott.

[Jon Foster]

Sorry, I thought there was something "extra" you did to remove the haze. Don't know why I thought that though...

I think all the shots turned out pretty darn good after seeing what you started with too.

Thanks, Jon.

[FScott]

Originally Posted by Jon Foster

Sorry, I thought there was something "extra" you did to remove the haze. Don't know why I thought that though...

I think all the shots turned out pretty darn good after seeing what you started with too.

Thanks, Jon.

yeah, I was absolutely shocked at how bad it was the day of the launch. I knew it would be hazy and had taken many practice shots during the week before the launch. I tried a Haze 1B filter which did nothing. I tried a polarizer which also did nothing. In the end I just took the pictures and hoped for the best in post processing!

-- Scott.