Delta II launch
of COSMO satellite, over San Diego November 5th, 2010
this was a not very spectacular
launch, just too late for the sunlight to give us noctilucent
clouds... nevertheless, it is a neat thing to see...
this lounch was the fourth for the Italian COSMO-SkyMed series
of mapping and peeking radar satellites and had a launch window
of only one second...
It took four tries to get it off the ground. I started the exposure
just as the main engine was peeking through the cloud layer at
about T+3:20 and stopped at about T+5:19.
Main engine cutoff at T+4:36 is where the color changes from pink
to blue when the hydrazine powered second stage takes over.. the
star trails
are mostly Herculese and surrounds I think, the view is just north
of west... Vandenberg Air Force Base is just below the horizon
behind the trees.
