My Photo Guides

Rocket and Missile Launches Are Often Dubbed "UFOs" But they're actually a lot of fun to photograph if you can plan ahead to set up for them.  Here are photos and video from a NASA rocket launch I caught along the California Coast:  http://www.jeffsullivanphotography.com/blog/2014/07/04/nasas-oco-2-satellite-launch-yesterday/ If you heard about the "UFO" over California last night, Philip Plait explains that it was just a Navy Trident missile test: Naval Missile Test Freaks Out LA http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/11/07/california_mystery_light_trident_missile_test_seen_by_thousands.html #rocket   #launch   #nightphotography   #california   Originally shared by Jeff Sullivan NASA's OCO-2 Satellite Launch Yesterday The original July 1 launch was delayed 24 hours due to a technical glitch in the water lines for an acoustic suppression system in the launch pad.  The delay to yesterday morning, July 2, enabled Lori Hibbett and I to pick a new...

Rocket Launch at Vandenberg AFB So social media went nuts last night over what apparently turned out to be a Trident missile launch.  It's fun to capture missile launches when they're announced ahead of time.  This is Lori Hibbett  capturing the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory OCO-2 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2) satellite shortly after launch in the early morning hours of July 2, 2014.   This 15 second exposure starts around 4 minutes, 40 seconds into the OCO-2 satellite launch last July, as the cover is jettisoned off the satellite, the Delta II's first stage cuts off and the second stage ignites.  I was shooting with three cameras at once, one capturing a time-lapse sequence of several hours at wide angle, another shooting live video, this one my Canon 5D Mark III with a  70-200mm lens at 70mm to get more detailed shots of the rocket than the wide angle time-lapse would capture.  As the rocket headed south, I realized that it was moving toward where Lori was shooting, so...

Viewing the NASA Launch at Vandenberg AFB Monday Night If anyone wants to come photograph the launch of the OCO-2 satellite, here are details on the launch early Tuesday morning in Lompoc: 2:56 a.m. – Planned launch of OCO-2’s Delta II rocket The OCO-2 Vandenberg public viewing site is off of Corral Road near Vandenberg's main gate. To access the area, take Highway 1 to the Santa Maria Gate and proceed on Lompoc Casmalia Road.  At the barriers, turn right onto Corral Road and bear left to the top. The launch countdown net and port-o-lets are set up near the bleachers. The pre-launch briefing and science panel will air live on Sunday, June 29 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on NASA TV and http://ustream.tv/NASAJPL2 .  Here's more information as well::                  OCO-2 News       http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/search.php?search=oco-2         Press Kit       http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/oco2-launch-press-kit.pdf         Mission Website http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/         Video Pla...