DSLRUsers.com

Well, we went and watched Discovery launch whilst I was in Florida. An AMAZING experience to witness...it was a post sunset launch and something I'll not forget in a hurry!

A couple of shots below but there are more, along with a more detailed write up in my blog article, here.

Discovery cuts through the last high up rays of sunlight, casting a beam of shadow across the air.


Lift off


The two solid rocket boosters detach from discovery

That is something I want to see at some stage in my life. It must be awesome! Thanks for posting the images. What is the dark straight line in the first image?

Edit: The dark line is a shadow... just read your blog. Thanks!

I was lucky enough to be in Florida a couple of years ago to see the daylight launch of Atlantis (STS-112).

It was great to see your images and read you blog as it brought back some fond memories. At the time I had joined a tour to get to the launch and we were taken to the "closest" viewing point the general public were alllowed to get to but I was disappointed when we arrived there as it was still many km's from the lauch pad (safety issues being the main reason). I had expectations of actually being a lot closer, having seen TV footage previously (obviously those people were VIP's).

I only had an old Nikon film camera at the time with a shortish zoom and tried taking some shots of the launch with only minimal success. I would whole heartedly agree with this comment that you made

The whole thing was over in a matter of minutes and because I spent most of it looking through a camera I almost feel like I missed the event.

If I ever get the chance again I probably wouldn't even bother with the camera and just enjoy the spectacle.

It was an amazing experience to witness but its just a shame that it is over so quickly (after the hours of waiting).