STS-133 Space Shuttle Discovery daytime long exposure

D

DaveThurlow

Messages
6
Edit My Images
Yes
On the second attempt I managed to view the final launch of Discovery from the NASA causeway.



Taken on our arrival at the causeway, 6 miles from the launch pad.


Close Up of Discovery, STS-133, on Launch Pad LC-39A by Dave Thurlow Photography, on Flickr


Discovery Emerges from the Smoke, Fire and Steam. STS-133. by Dave Thurlow Photography, on Flickr


Discovery STS-133 by Dave Thurlow Photography, on Flickr


Discovery STS-133 by Dave Thurlow Photography, on Flickr


Fully Rotated, Discovery is high above the clouds. by Dave Thurlow Photography, on Flickr


Discovery STS-133 by Dave Thurlow Photography, on Flickr

And finally.........
 
36 sec exposure, B&W ND110 Neutral density filter.
So far I'm not aware of another daytime long exposure image of a Shuttle launch.


NASA Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 Long Exposure by Dave Thurlow Photography, on Flickr


Copyright © David Thurlow. These images may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.


Dave Thurlow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davethurlow/
 
Last edited:
Nice shots, must be pretty amazing to watch, and I guess pretty noisey! #3 is my fav just as the shuttle is emerging from the smoke

The long exposure is nice to see the direction in which the shuttle goes! I always assumed it went directly up initially.
 
Last edited:
rocafreestyler said:
Nice shots, must be pretty amazing to watch, and I guess pretty noisey! #3 is my fav just as the shuttle is emerging from the smoke

The long exposure is nice to see the direction in which the shuttle goes! I always assumed it went directly up initially.
Click to expand...

The curve in the trail might have something to do with the earths rotation as the shuttle is going straight up but the lauch pad has moved. This is only my guess so don't quote me on it.

Love the pics and very jelous as this is something that I'll never get to see live as the shuttles have all been retired.
 
Beautiful. I think that last one could be worth a few bob. Very creative - a great idea :clap:
 
I was lucky enough to be staying at disney land 12 years ago and the shuttle took off, everyone in the hotel came out to watch.

It was dark outside and the shuttle which was about 20 miles away lit up the whole sky, absolutely bloody amazing.
 
Envious-i would have loved to see and shoot that in person. Nice shots, love the shuttle emerging from the bellowing smoke :)
 
I watched a shuttle launch 4 or 5 years ago, even at the 6 mile safe area you could feel the noise and vibrations going through you..it was one of the most awsom sights i have ever seen
 
Amazing shots mate, we saw ST134 lift off in May but the cloud base was low & I have not got the kit yet to match your shots :razz:

I love the long exposure shot. I remember the reason for the roll on take off being explained in the tour at the Kennedy Space Centre but could not recall it in full.

+1 Rob said:
The curve in the trail might have something to do with the earths rotation as the shuttle is going straight up but the lauch pad has moved. This is only my guess so don't quote me on it.
Click to expand...

Rob, this explains the reason the shuttle rolls on launch. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_space_shuttle_roll_onto_back_during_launch

Mick
 
The long exposure shot was taken with a Canon 10D with Sigma 10-20mm.
The others were with a 40D and 100-400mm.
The whole thing was amazing. In the last few minutes before launch there were launch tech delays, my friends camera crashed 90 sec before launch (it woke up again in time), I had to set off the time delay 5 seconds before launch then get back to my position to use the 40D. Incredably emotional, the Americans were going wild. The SRB flames were extremely bright, very wierd to see 30+ seconds of launch before the sound got to us. Could not bring myself to check the images for about 4 hours.

This was a once in a life time opportunity, well that's what my wife says now!
 
Quality shots Dave!

I managed to get to the last one on the 8th July, awesome experience apart from the countdown stopping at 31 seconds before resuming again.

My shots weren't anything spectacular as we were on a boat on the Indian river. I'll try post some soon anyway.
 
3 is good but I really like 4 as well.
Whilst the 36 second shot is clever and well executed, unless you told us I doubt anyone would have realised.
 
I'm amazed at how they turned out 6 miles away, I don't care about the noise. The long exposure one was a great idea. I need to get some nd filters soon
 
I saw a shuttle launch from space view park in Titusville a few years ago and I agree it is an awesome thing to see in the flesh. I only had a 300mm with me at the time so I had to do major cropping to get a usuable image.

Your set of photos are fantastic.
 
aleung2 said:
I'm amazed at how they turned out 6 miles away, I don't care about the noise. The long exposure one was a great idea. I need to get some nd filters soon
Click to expand...

I've got some shots from a few years ago taken with a 100-400 lens from 12-15 miles away and was surprised how clearly you could see the shuttle at 100%. I was expecting to see just the flames/smoke plume.
 
Mickwreay said:
Rob, this explains the reason the shuttle rolls on launch. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_space_shuttle_roll_onto_back_during_launch

Mick
Click to expand...

That wiki page goes on with a lot of technical crap without bothering to answer the question. If a shuttle or rocket goes vertically up and continues to do so, then when it runs out of fuel it will fall back down to Earth [unless it carries enough fuel to take it well beyond the Earth's gravity pull]. To achieve orbit the shuttle must turn to a more horizontal track to follow the Earth's curvature. But again, when the fuel runs out, it would just fall to the ground. This is where escape velocity comes in - 17,000mph-ish. At this speed, when travelling along this more horizontal track, due to the curvature of the Earth, the ground falls away faster than the shuttle can fall to the ground. So gravity is constantly trying to pull the shuttle to the ground, but the ground is curving out of the way. Hence the term "freefall".

This is why dead satellites and other space junk plummets to the ground. When orbital speed decays over time, due to the friction from the tiny amount of air etc, gravity pulls that curvature tighter until the Earth gets in the way.

The shuttle rolls as well as curving its flight path so that it orbits along the correct equatorial path which the ISS travels along, and not, for example, Siberia to South America. If the launch pad was positioned east-west then it wouldn't have to roll - just bend its flight path.

Geo-stationary satellites like Sky and the GPS family are not truly stationary. They're just travelling [falling] in the same direction as the Earth's rotation, at a speed which keeps them over the same place.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top