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APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 4:06 am
by APOD Robot
RBSP Night Launch
Explanation: This graceful arc traces a Delta rocket climbing through Thursday's early morning skies over
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, USA. Snug inside the rocket's Centaur upper stage were NASA's twin
Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), now in separate orbits within planet Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. Reflected in the
Turn Basin from a vantage point about 3 miles from Space Launch Complex 41, the scene was captured in a composite of two exposures. One highlights the dramatic play of launch pad lighting, clouds, and sky. A subsequent 3 minute long exposure records the rocket's fiery trail. While most spacecraft try to avoid
the radiation belts, named for their
discoverer James Van Allen, RBSP's mission will be to explore their dynamic and harsh conditions.
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Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 4:07 am
by bystander
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 4:10 am
by Beyond
The RBSP's are now 'belted'. I hope they're cinched tight enough so they won't fall down.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 4:51 am
by ta152h0
any rocket cam imagery of this launch ? I hope JPL has a camera on the next MARS vehicle that would show the landing as if " viewed from the cockpit " . I am guessing the last MARS landing will be the Modus Operandi of future landings and no more gasbags, right ?
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 10:38 am
by neufer
ta152h0 wrote:
any rocket cam imagery of this launch ?
Probably...but considering that it was a "
Night Launch" there would not be much to see besides the rocket exhaust.
ta152h0 wrote:
I hope JPL has a camera on the next MARS vehicle that would show the landing as if " viewed from the cockpit " .
Like the last MARS vehicle?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZioPhfxnSY
ta152h0 wrote:
I am guessing the last MARS landing will be the Modus Operandi of future landings and no more gasbags, right ?
Gasbags work great for
small & medium sized rovers.
And small & medium sized
NON-rovers like Viking & Phoenix will use the old: heat shield/parachute/standard descent engines.
Only
large probes like Curiosity will require these exotic new techniques to avoid kicking up too much crap from the surface.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 1:23 pm
by Flying Squirrel
Hmm, that looks like a (almost) new moon just under the arc of the rocket's trail,
which is in the right place for an eastward looking view, pre-dawn.
But the moon was full on Friday (8/31/12), so is that not the moon, or what?
Please explain.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 2:19 pm
by BillGawne
The launch vehicle was an Atlas V. Not a Delta. Otherwise it's a great picture.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 3:00 pm
by EdieB
Spaceflight Now has that it was an Atlas...
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av032/
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 3:19 pm
by EdieB
Flying Squirrel wrote:Hmm, that looks like a (almost) new moon just under the arc of the rocket's trail,
which is in the right place for an eastward looking view, pre-dawn.
But the moon was full on Friday (8/31/12), so is that not the moon, or what?
Please explain.
That does resemble a crescent moon, doesn't it? But I would expect the moon to be brighter in such a long-exposure photo, and it looks a little bit ragged to me, i.e. not perfectly round. Another clue might be that its light is orange like the rocket trail. So perhaps the orange light of the rocket motor is shining on some curvy clouds? Could it have anything to do with SRB jettison?
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 3:31 pm
by Chris Peterson
Flying Squirrel wrote:Hmm, that looks like a (almost) new moon just under the arc of the rocket's trail,
which is in the right place for an eastward looking view, pre-dawn.
But the moon was full on Friday (8/31/12), so is that not the moon, or what?
Please explain.
It's an internal reflection of the aperture stop inside the lens- a type of lens flare. You can even see the vanes of the iris making the reflection polygonal rather than round.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 3:48 pm
by chull
Were the two exposures misaligned? The trail reflection is going the wrong way (right) while the liftoff is going left. Might be hard to explain but do you see what I mean? The water surface should act like a mirror.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 4:59 pm
by EdieB
chull wrote:Were the two exposures misaligned? The trail reflection is going the wrong way (right) while the liftoff is going left. Might be hard to explain but do you see what I mean? The water surface should act like a mirror.
Multiple exposures in cases like this usually means stacked, not stitched. Digital exposure doesn't allow a long enough time to record the desired event, so you have to take more exposures and stack them. Not sure about the reflection, but the entire photo is tilted counterclockwise slightly (the tripod wasn't level), which sends the upper portion a little left and the lower portion a little right. If you correct for this, the rocket trail and its reflection will be closer to straight up and down at the horizon. Not sure if this accounts for what you are seeing.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 5:07 pm
by Chris Peterson
chull wrote:Were the two exposures misaligned? The trail reflection is going the wrong way (right) while the liftoff is going left. Might be hard to explain but do you see what I mean? The water surface should act like a mirror.
Both the trail in the air and the trail in the water were captured in the same exposure. I think the exposure with the trail must still contain enough landscape elements that any misalignment with the foreground exposure would be apparent when they were stacked.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 5:41 pm
by EdieB
Chris Peterson wrote:chull wrote:Were the two exposures misaligned? The trail reflection is going the wrong way (right) while the liftoff is going left. Might be hard to explain but do you see what I mean? The water surface should act like a mirror.
Both the trail in the air and the trail in the water were captured in the same exposure. I think the exposure with the trail must still contain enough landscape elements that any misalignment with the foreground exposure would be apparent when they were stacked.
Chull was asking why the trail and reflection, combined, look like this
\
when, if there is any deviation from the vertical, they should look like this, a mirror image.
>
Misalignment was Chull's guess as to the answer, but the question remains. Do you have an explanation, Chris?
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 6:14 pm
by Chris Peterson
EdieB wrote:Chull was asking why the trail and reflection, combined, look like this
\
when, if there is any deviation from the vertical, they should look like this, a mirror image.
>
Misalignment was Chull's guess as to the answer, but the question remains. Do you have an explanation, Chris?
I understood the question, and was just explaining why misalignment is most likely
not the explanation. I don't have any solid explanation, but I will say that angles can be misleading in wide angle images, because there is always significant distortion.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 6:58 pm
by bystander
EdieB wrote:
Chull was asking why the trail and reflection, combined, look like this \
when, if there is any deviation from the vertical, they should look like this, a mirror image. >
Misalignment was Chull's guess as to the answer, but the question remains.
I think, perhaps, your previous comment explains it.
EdieB wrote:... the entire photo is tilted counterclockwise slightly (the tripod wasn't level), which sends the upper portion a little left and the lower portion a little right. If you correct for this, the rocket trail and its reflection will be closer to straight up and down at the horizon. ...
if you look at the interior angle from the left of the two trails, it is somewhat less than 180°. You may also wish to consider the reflection point is not centered in the frame which may skew the apparent reflection angle, especially in a wide angle shot. If you look at the reflections of the objects on the horizon, objects on the right are skewed to the right and objects on the left are skewed to the left.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 7:51 pm
by floating_pencils
That's one of the most dynamic images I've seen on this site.
Thanks so much!
-Andy
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 12:39 am
by BadGirlM
Quote
>That does resemble a crescent moon, doesn't it? But I would expect the moon to be brighter in such a long-exposure photo, and it looks a little bit ragged to me, i.e. not perfectly round. Another clue might be that its light is orange like the rocket trail. So perhaps the orange light of the rocket motor is shining on some curvy clouds? Could it have anything to do with SRB jettison?<
Two thing trouble me on this. If you blow the pic up, celestial movement is vertical, as it should be.
1) As previously mentioned, the round object seems to be the Moon, very nearly in New Phase.
2) Could the minor elongation of this object be due to the 3 min exposure?
Occham's Razor, folks, "the simplest answer is usually the right one. So, I put forward that this photo, as mentioned is a composite, has the Launch but the previous one includes the near New Moon.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:13 am
by biddie67
Following the links, I found a mention that James Van Allen discovered that there was also radiation belts around Saturn. Do any of the other planets in the Solar System have radiation belts? Does the Sun have anything like them?
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:45 pm
by neufer
neufer wrote:ta152h0 wrote:
I am guessing the last MARS landing will be the Modus Operandi of future landings and no more gasbags, right ?
Gasbags work great for
small & medium sized rovers.
And small & medium sized
NON-rovers like Viking & Phoenix will use the old: heat shield/parachute/standard descent engines.
Only
large probes like Curiosity will require these exotic new techniques to avoid kicking up too much crap from the surface.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:16 pm
by owlice
AAAaaaaaaa! I want one! Are these kits??
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:18 pm
by owlice
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:46 pm
by Beyond
Ahhh, finally! Toys for the adults. er, um,, for educational purposes only
(?), of course.
Re: APOD: RBSP Night Launch (2012 Sep 02)
Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:54 am
by cliffhardin67
My fiance and I were fortunate to see this launch from Missouri. I was out watching Jupiter through my telescope and took a break when I noticed a comet like object in the south. It was beautiful. We were able to watch it for about 30 minutes. When we could no longer view it with the naked eyes, we used the 5 inch refractor and continued to watch. After it was no longer visible I showed her Orion's nebula (M42). It was a beautiful morning here in the ozarks !
