Photo Essay: The eastern sunset, March 15, 2009

In July of 2006, I was driving south down I-4 one afternoon, when I saw ahead of me an unusual sight. It looked like a jet contrail, but seemed to rise from the ground, and was an odd color. Orange-ish. I paused for a moment, a little puzzled. I watched as I saw the flash of silver which would have been the "jet." And then I thought for a moment, and picked up my cell phone. I dialed my son's number. He was unemployed and living in Virginia. He was also a news addict.

"Hello." He said.

"Hi, did the space shuttle just launch?" I asked.

"Yes." He responded. "Why?"

I told him I had just seen it, and then I told him I would call him later.

I was amazed. I was just outside of St. Augustine, and would never have dreamed that the launch would be watchable from that distance. But I watched it. I watched until the shuttle itself disappeared over the horizon, and the orange contrail which remained seemed to overtake the sky for nearly an hour after the launch.

I was hooked. A few days later, I was in my house, and I would have sworn that someone just dropped a bowling ball on my roof. It was a loud boom, and I'd never heard anything like it. I turned on the television, tuned it to CNN, to see the shuttle landing.

From then on, I have made a point of trying to watch the launches. I've gotten photos once or twice, but nothing to write home about. Two years ago, I moved to the neighborhood I'm in now, and it's a very wide-open area. I thought I ought to be able to see the launch, but didn't know where to look. The first time there was a launch here, I missed it because I did not know which direction to look. I found out after the fact. Since then, I've seen most of them... at least the ones which didn't go directly into the clouds.

But Sunday evening, I rode my bike for one block, and watched the most spectacular one yet. The timing was perfect, at twilight... the sky just dark enough that it was very visible from here, although fifteen miles east, my son could not see it at all.

I took photos, and though I was disappointed in the quality, you do get some idea of what I saw, so I thought I'd share a few. I took 80 shots of the launch and the after-effects, but I won't post them all here. :) Just some of the better ones.

The sky, just a moment before the launch. I did not have the optimal location, and could have done without the transformer box right in front of me... but my eyes were on the sky, anyway.

Then I saw it... first just a flash of color in the sky...

It disappeared behind a cloud, dashing my hopes for a moment...

Then it was back. Note the shape change, as you can see the solid rocket boosters beginning to separate...

Higher it rose...

And it kept rising...

See the separation here...

I just kept snapping photos. Some, of the craft, which became nothing more than a small white dot. I kept snapping the photos even when I could no longer see the white dot... because I suspected (correctly, as it turned out) that I would be able to make it out in the photos even though I could not see it in the sky...