I toyed with the idea of buying a different manual lens to use for launch day and almost jumped on a 50-300 or 80-200 from KEH, but decided that either lens would probably show up late; my trusty D700 and 105/2.5 (the lens that started it all for me) would have to work.
I was fortunate enough to win a spot for viewing the launch from inside Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. There were a lot of nerves surrounding the launch of Falcon Heavy, and several hours of wind delays didn't help. Fortunately, everything was perfect from lift off:
Falcon Heavy isn't as loud off the pad as the Space Shuttle or even as loud as Merlin engine testing on cold, cloudy days, but that didn't make it any less impressive:
Seeing the rocket get high enough that the heat from the plume makes a vapor cloud is one of my favorite parts of every launch:
I nabbed shots all the way up to booster sep, but with a D700 and 105/2.5, a ~15 story side booster renders at only 2x10 pixels. The resolution isn't much better for entry burn or coast back towards landing burn. I have shots of those, but figured I'd skip forward to a final shot right before booster landing.
The side boosters come down almost staggered by just a few seconds (to prevent jamming of radar altimeters). It really staggers the mind to see something the size of a rocket falling faster than the speed of sound through the sky, and it's even crazier to see it happen with two simultaneously. From my vantage point, we were ~approximately 2 miles from the landing pads (which looks scary in person even though the rockets maintain a ballistic trajectory into the ocean until very shortly before landing). I got a sequence of shots of the landings, but figured I'll just post one as the landing videos from the Delta IV Heavy launch facility are much more impressive since the include sound:
I'm very glad the demo launch went successfully; it was truly a memorable experience to never forget after all of the hard work I've put in. Perhaps more excitingly, this launch captured the interest of people all over the world. As we watched " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Starman drift away from earth in a Tesla Roadster, our imaginations drifted back to the original space race, kindling the wonder and curiosity to keep exploring and expanding the envelope of the human frontier.
I toyed with the idea of buying a different manual lens to use for launch day and almost jumped on a 50-300 or 80-200 from KEH, but decided that either lens would probably show up late; my trusty D700 and 105/2.5 (the lens that started it all for me) would have to work.
I was fortunate enough to win a spot for viewing the launch from inside Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. There were a lot of nerves surrounding the launch of Falcon Heavy, and several hours of wind delays didn't help. Fortunately, everything was perfect from lift off:
Falcon Heavy isn't as loud off the pad as the Space Shuttle or even as loud as Merlin engine testing on cold, cloudy days, but that didn't make it any less impressive:
Seeing the rocket get high enough that the heat from the plume makes a vapor cloud is one of my favorite parts of every launch:
I nabbed shots all the way up to booster sep, but with a D700 and 105/2.5, a ~15 story side booster renders at only 2x10 pixels. The resolution isn't much better for entry burn or coast back towards landing burn. I have shots of those, but figured I'd skip forward to a final shot right before booster landing.
The side boosters come down almost staggered by just a few seconds (to prevent jamming of radar altimeters). It really staggers the mind to see something the size of a rocket falling faster than the speed of sound through the sky, and it's even crazier to see it happen with two simultaneously. From my vantage point, we were ~approximately 2 miles from the landing pads (which looks scary in person even though the rockets maintain a ballistic trajectory into the ocean until very shortly before landing). I got a sequence of shots of the landings, but figured I'll just post one as the landing videos from the Delta IV Heavy launch facility are much more impressive since the include sound:
I'm very glad the demo launch went successfully; it was truly a memorable experience to never forget after all of the hard work I've put in. Perhaps more excitingly, this launch captured the interest of people all over the world. As we watched " target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Starman drift away from earth in a Tesla Roadster, our imaginations drifted back to the original space race, kindling the wonder and curiosity to keep exploring and expanding the envelope of the human frontier.
