“It was an early morning yesterday (actually today), I was up before the dawn”. I’m still a little slap-happy thinking of Super Tramp’s “Goodbye Stranger” song. We, my wife, two teen sons, teen nephew, our 4 month old Chihauhau, and I all got up at 4 a.m., packed and left for Titusville, FL. We were on the road within 10 minutes of waking up. Traffic was OK, expectations were high. We were not disappointed this time, unlike the overnight stay last spring that only yielded a postponed launch.
The crowds were high with tons of out of state spring breakers slamming up against the edge of the Indian River to witness this marvel of American science, engineering, and wonder. Launch time was 6:21 a.m. We arrive a little after 5 a.m. and squeezed in. Tripods up and ready, cameras out, settings set checked and doubled checked, the weather was clear and mild.
My youngest son was shooting with ‘his’ Nikon D200, 70mm-200mm f/2.8 (borrowed), with full manual settings of ISO 400, f5.6, 1/500 of a second shutter speed. I set up a D700, 35mm-70mm f2.8, with cable release, on a monster Bogen Manfrotto 3036 video tripod (this thing will give a 3′ wide tree stump a run for it’s money as far as stability is concerned). This camera, cranked up to seven feet tall on the tripod to get over the crowds head, was used to create the 5 minute time-lapse (image two) and set to ISO200, f/22, bulb (308 second exposure). This was controlled and fired by my oldest son who also had the task of guarding the tripod legs from being bumped. I shot with a D300, 200mm-400mm f4 lens, on a Manfrotto 1227 carbon-fiber tripod. I too had the settings of ISO 400, f5.6, 1/500 of a second shutter speed dialed into the D300.
The settings were provided to us courtesy of NASA photographer Ben Cooper. I must confess, I was skeptical standing there in the dark before the launch with a 1/500 shutter speed setting. As people around started yelling out the countdown, I positioned my eye on the view finder. The exposure reading was slammed to the right indicating ‘way’ underexposed. When the shuttle blasted off the meter reading shot across center and left to ‘way’ overexposed. But needless to say Ben was right and the settings paid off (see image 1). Thank you Ben Cooper for your help with this one.
After the blast, we all gazed in awe as the shuttle zipped into space. At one point vaporizing some part of our atmosphere, it created a sunlit vail which resembled a jelly fish (image 4). With the excitement still thick in the air, we stared at the enormous steam/smoke vapor trail which reached up into the new day’s sunlight that had not yet reached terra firma. As we headed out on the road, 45 minutes after the launch, the vapor trail still lingering, looked like an abstract artwork hung in the sky (image 6).
The exitus from Titusville seemed thoroughly complete. I wondered if anyone actually stayed there after the launch. I’m sure there are a couple guys sweeping up in the vehicle assembly building, or something. Our 1 hr 45 min drive home took 5 hours of patience testing start and stop driving. Would I do it again? Heck ya!! Only a couple more chances left.
GEAR USED – (1) Nikon D200, 70mm-200mm f/2.8 (2) D700, 35mm-70mm f2.8, cable release, Bogen Manfrotto 3036 tripod (3) D300, 200mm-400mm f4 lens, Manfrotto 1227 carbon-fiber tripod
by Kent Weakley
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