Greetings from Palmia Observatory,
This week we went outside with just an iPhone, without DSLR and flimsy tripod, and looked up at the Falcon 9 launch contrails.
We checked the SpaceX website for launch status and when it finally took off from Vandenberg, we walked outside to take a look up in the Orange County city lights sky. The flight trajectories make it possible to see most of the first stage action from many locations in southern California.
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| SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch from Vandenberg (Source: SpaceX) |
Within about half a minute the rocket contrails were spotted above the tree line. I'm tempted to bring out the DSLR and flimsy tripod and capture a video recording, but many times I'm just the lazy astronomer wannabe and don't get around to it.
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| Falcon 9 as seen from Orange County city lights view (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
After the first stage engine cutoff, the ignition of the second stage became visible but quite dim. The contrails were barely visible in city lights viewing, for me, but eventually we could see the contrails flaring out widely.
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| Falcon 9 Second Stage as seen from Orange County city lights view (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
A separate opportunity to look up was presented when both Jupiter and the Moon were visible above the tree line. Not having the DSLR and flimsy tripod available, I just used the iPhone to get this image.
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| Just trying to get iPhone image of Moon and Jupiter (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Wow, the Moon is so bright that it just blows out the image. Now, I have another app on the iPhone, called NightCam, which provides more control over shutter speed and duration and ISO setting, so I thought let's just try that and see what the image looks like. Trying various combinations resulted in this image. Hmm, still not what I wanted, but it is a bit better. Maybe with other attempts and different combinations of settings, a better image can be obtained. My suspicion is that the app will be more useful for dimmer objects like aurora or views of the Milky Way, but these are not easily seen in city lights viewing.
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Finally, just for fun, I found this video on YouTube. Robots and robot dogs are of interest, so check out this YouTube video showing Beeple's Animal Farm at Art Basel Miami. The art exhibit uses robot dogs but with human heads attached. You can see the video at: See robotic dogs with human heads causing a scene at Miami art fair
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| Beeple's Art Exhibit with robot dogs with human heads (Source: Beeple's Art Exhibit) |
Until next time,
Resident Astronomer George
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