This evening rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast was visible from the entire southwestern United States. I photographed the launch from a location just south of Phoenix, Arizona -- 500 miles away from the launch site! The mountain range in the foreground is the Sierra Estrella. The Minotaur rocket carried DARPA's Streak research satellite, being launched south into a polar orbit.
![[meteors_050922_06.jpg]](meteors_050922_06.jpg) 7:26 p.m. MST. 200mm, f/4, ~10 seconds. Rocket trail during 2nd stage burn.
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![[meteors_050922_07.jpg]](meteors_050922_07.jpg) 7:27 p.m. MST. 200mm, f/4, ~10 seconds. 3rd stage burn, with gap due to stage 2 separation.
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![[meteors_050922_08.jpg]](meteors_050922_08.jpg) 7:29 p.m. MST. 40mm, f/2.8, ~30 seconds. Exhaust plume from 3rd stage spreads out. Venus at extreme left.
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![[meteors_050922_10.jpg]](meteors_050922_10.jpg) 7:34 p.m. MST. 200mm, f/4, ~60 seconds. Lingering trail from 2nd stage twists into corkscrew shape.
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All photos taken using Fuji Provia 100F slide film with Olympus OM-1 35mm camera on fixed tripod, scanned with Nikon Coolscan LS-2000. Streaks from passing planes touched out on all images.
Thanks to Rick Scott for alerting me to this launch. See Rick's photos of the launch here.
Vandenberg launch schedules:
http://mocc.vandenberg.af.mil/launchsched.asp
http://www.spacearchive.info/vafbsked.htm
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html