Discussion: NASA Rocket launch visible from NE US tonight

The LADEE (pronounced lad-ee) lunar mission is scheduled to launch from Wallops Island, Virginia tonight at 11:27 PM EDT aboard a Minotaur V rocket. The ascent will be low to the horizon but should be visible towards the south-east for viewers in the NE United States.

Launch coverage will be on NASA TV. Here is some additional info about viewing the launch. Have a look at the purple colored map on the first link to get an idea of how high it will be as seen from your location. Its not all that high (relatively speaking) so you'll need a good SSE horizon. If you can get to the Atlantic coast or position yourself NW of a large lake that might be best. The weather looks fantastic for the launch tonight, and the evening timing is good. Because its at night it'll be easier to see the bright flame from the engine. A fist held at arm's length subtends about 10 degrees, so its going to be 1-2 fists high at max. Get the lowest horizon you can find. In New England you'll want to look due south.

With Orbital Sciences Corp contracted to launch resupply missions to the ISS from Wallops VA over the next couple of years there could be more opportunities like this, although well positioned night launches might be rare. Poke your head out tonight before bed and have a look. For photographers, set up on a tripod or prop and set your camera for a long exposure. Set the gain/ISO high, and take a few long practice shots to see how the light levels look. Follow NASA TV online to keep up with the status so you know when to pull the trigger. The launch video there should be interesting too.

Viewing guide:
http://www.universetoday.com/104515/how-to-see-the...

Additional info:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/main/index...

NASA TV online:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#....

I wrote the flight software embedded in the main science payload, the Neutral Mass Spectrometer. It characterizes the lunar atmosphere, whatever there is of it, and hopefully yields some understanding of its dynamics.

Nice! Will you be on site for the launch?

A while back, Tom's boss gave him a little assignment... :)

I'm pretty sure I got the zeros in the right places. There were only about 600,000 of them. No, I was invited to Wallops, of course, but declined because I'd rather run at Pawtuckaway tomorrow.

it's a little last minute, but you can go here and download a google earth file with the flight path. makes planning the view a bit easier. too cool. thanks for the heads up, eddie!

25 mins to launch. Everything seems to be in order on the pad.

Saw it from pawtuckaway. Cool.

easily seen from the top of the Fells, even over a city's worth of lights. scared a bunch of kids who thought I was a cop busting their fun. very cool.

NASA TV just said good spacecraft separation and the orbit is nominal.

Nice show over Baltimore. It was higher than I was expecting. 212km (130 mi) from the pad.

One photo here, more shortly. This one was during the third stage burn:

Sums of 3 20s exposures, with a camera move between each set. I was a little shaky when pressing the button with the flimsy tripod. This is looking directly over Baltimore city.

The Full Monty

Nice! Thanks for letting us know, Eddie. I was just getting ready to go to bed when I read this about half an hour before the launch after having arrived and set up camp at Pawtuckaway in the dark. Looking up from our campsite I could see that the sky was clear but we were covered by trees. I noted from the campground map that the waterfront sites across the road from us were facing south. So I walked down the road until I found an unoccupied site that had a good view across the water. 10 mins to go I hurry back to our site and wake up my 12 year old son, throw a jacket on him, and drag him down the road. We get there 2 mins before launch, get a good seat with our feat dangling over the water, and scan the skyline while checking my watch. He sees it first and I heave a sigh of relief that I didn't wake him for nothing. I then proceeded to regale him with stories of how my dad used to wake me up in middle of the night during the 60s to watch Apollo moon missions on TV!

Cool, glad you were able to see it! Hope there are more night launches from Wallops in the future.

I made an animation of my launch photos. Takes a few seconds to load and then you can adjust the speed. Would have been much easier to just take straight video of the whole thing :) But the long streaks of the 20s exptime are cool. Check out the exhaust plume from the third stage drifting around after the rocket is long gone.

The horizontal streaks at the bottom are cars going by on the interstate. There's a plane going by in the last few frames too.

I hate to say this eddie but----- it sure looks to me like that thing is headed right back down to the ground.

:) Yeah, watching from D.C. would have been even more disturbing. Looks like they launched it directly into the Air and Space Museum. What a great time-saver!

The Full Monty, with annotations

I missed the show live, but frankly I think the animated replay with comments by Eddie was better for me..

eddie, I think it's awesome that you have such passion about this subject. If only everyone had something they were so tickled by!

Hey, Eddie, how come you didn't get the frog in your picture?

For those in much of the NE US who missed the LADEE mission launch, it looks like we get another chance to watch a rocket go up tonight - How to Watch Today's Antares Rocket Launch Scheduled for 10:50 EDT

Unfortunately, that was 10:50 AM - about 50 mins ago. I didn't get a notice myself until an hour before launch and I was outside mowing the lawn so didn't get it. :(

Nice picture eddie - I think I'll share it with the students in my physics lab next week.

Curse my inattentive reading - oh well. Though now I'm curious to find some photos and see how visible a launch like this would have been in full daylight.