Has anyone here photographed the launch? I am going to try very hard to go to one after the May 31st launch. I have a Canon S3 IS, and I'll have to get a telephoto adapter. Or maybe if I can swing it borrow my brother in law's Canon 20D.
I've always wanted to shoot a launch. May 31 you say? I'm travelling on that day. My last trip it launched while I was at MCO but I was able to see the red light go into the sky that afternoon. You'll need as much telephoto length as you can find.
I have never really photographed the shuttle launch. But I have been at WDW for two different launches. The first was the night launch in December 2006. That one was really neat. It really did look like the sun was rising for a moment. The night launch photos were taken at the pool at the Contemporary. Then in June 2007, we were at MGM for another launch. That shot was taken from the parking lot. [This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]
Also never photographed the launch from Canaveral...but have been at Disney when it went up. I was at Saratoga Springs walking over to Downtown Disney when this launch surprised me - I wasn't even thinking of the launch, so I didn't even have time to set up aperture and shutter - I just threw on the tripod and did a 20-second exposure: Probably could have used shorter shutter and a smaller aperture! But very cool to see it, and even to catch any of it.
It is amazing that an hour away from where it launches you can see it light up the sky like that at night. Nice shots guys!
You can actually see it quite a bit farther than that. I live nearly 3 hours away from where it launches, and I can watch it clearly from my backyard. It's a little smaller and not quite as sky-illuminating as at Disney, where it almost looks like a miniature sunrise...but it looks like a big, bright orange dot with a small tail on it - even in broad daylight.
yes, we can usually see it here in SW FL too. Like you said not as bright, but during the day we can see the smoke trail, and night the orange spot. No sunrise lookalikes though!
Interestingly, when the very first shuttle launch occurred, I was working at WDW in the Central Shops and watched the launch from the roof with a bunch of other people.
