STS-130

89 Second exposure from my balcony. Unfortunately, of the hundred or so launches I've watched, this was by far the loudest. End result: even though my camera was on tripod with remote, the vibration from the shuttle caused some camera shake. Oh well, it was awesome!

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Wow, I think this is great. Super picture!

Nice shot!

Awesome! Is that the sun in the bottom, or just the shuttle?

awesome shot!! man, imagine that with 14 latitude film from kodak. I like it a lot.

Thanks all. The launch was at 4:14 am, so all light is shuttle flame. The brightness at the bottom is due to the fact that the main engines on the shuttle ignite 4 seconds before the solid rockets kick in. Therefore, on the long exposure, there is a concentration of light at the beginning. But it does look like a sunrise in real life. Too bad it's probably the last one.

well i was there to and have almost identical shot from space view park right at the waters edge

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I'm planning to come in July to see the launch of the 29th...

Could you give me some advice? where to go to see the launch?
What to do if it's posponned, how to get the info?
Btw, I'm from Belgium europe... Never been in florida..

Awesome shots, I'd love to see one someday....

Simply awesome. what a view.

smallmadtv wrote in post #9581320
I'm planning to come in July to see the launch of the 29th...

Could you give me some advice? where to go to see the launch?
What to do if it's posponned, how to get the info?
Btw, I'm from Belgium europe... Never been in florida..

I'm going to make this post a little detailed for the benefit of anyone else who may be wondering about this info.

Viewing options are:

Titusville (Including Spaceview Park) ~12 miles
This is the easiest site to view from. You just need to find a spot anywhere along Indian River. Local businesses and property owners will likely be charging for parking.
KSC Visitor Complex ~6.9 miles
The Visitor's Complex isn't that great because there's no view of the launch pad itself.
NASA Causeway (LTT site) ~6 miles
The Causeway requires purchasing an LTT (Launch Transportation Ticket), which I understand is a bit of a lottery now.
Apollo-Saturn V Center (VIP site) 3.9 miles
The VIP site requires an invitation from NASA, which can be requested by certain NASA staff and US Senators for use by others (Unfortunately I am not familiar with the process for non-US citizens).
Press Site 3.5 miles
Requires media credentials and may be the most difficult to access.

Note that road traffic in Titusville (Which you will have to drive through to go to any viewing location) will be bad going on, and a nightmare going out. Main roads may be congested all the way into the Orlando area.

Launch info:

You can follow mission progress with the following resources:

NASA Launch Schedule: http://www.nasa.gov …/highlights/sch​edule.html
NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/mu​ltimedia/nasatv/index.​html
NASA Twitter: http://twitter.com/NAS​A
KSC Mobile Command Twitter: http://twitter.com/KSC​_MOCOP
JSC (Houston) Twitter: http://twitter.com/NAS​A_Johnson

If a launch attempt is scrubbed:
Titusville - Prepare for a lot of driving. A hotel in town will be more useful than a hotel in Orlando.
Causeway - If the scrub is before you're bussed out to the Causeway, then you can make a second attempt. If you've already been bussed out and they scrub, you're out of luck but can view from the Visitor Complex.
VIP site - Passes to the VIP site are good for all launch attempts.

Photo advice:

The remaining launches are all during the day so exposure will be straightforward.

From Titusville - Don't go too long or too wide. Too long and you'll bump into atmospheric distortion. Too wide and there will be nothing to see. I find 200-300mm on APS-C is a good compromise that gets you the plume, water and sky.
From the Causeway, VIP site, press site - Long focal lengths are good here. 400mm and up.

A note about STS-134 (July) specifically: The 7:51am launch time means you will be shooting into the sun. This may present some challenges, but it may also present some interesting effects depending on atmospheric conditions. That includes sun dogs and crepuscular rays. Delays may also push the launch into a dawn timeframe.

Thanks for the helpful post Mike!

wicked cool!

super... thanks for sharing.

Excellent shot!

Jon.