Canon EOS 5D
ƒ/2.8
16 mm
1/0
800

Richard Hagen’s rocket, flying on a Aerotech J500G motor, created a wonderful night light over the Black Rock Desert playa.

edit: Regarding the overlay notes about the random color pixels; digital astronomy photography becomes an exercise in the statistics of noise. The high-end photographers liquid cool their sensors and build images from a large number of relatively short exposure shots. For bright objects, like the local planets, they integrate an image from video. It’s fascinating, and totally out of my league. This is just a single digital exposure, no Photoshop, and I suspect you are seeing pixels of noise. But I like the aspirational explantions more…

67 responses to “Bisecting the Moonrise”

  1. ::Nyla:: Avatar
    ::Nyla::

    ooooh wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    What a beautiful light effect this has created:)))

    Reply
  2. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    ah bueno…!!! |-O

    Reply
  3. Jaako Avatar
    Jaako

    spectacular.

    It really doesn’t look like that long of a flight?
    is that just perspective playing with me, or is the rocket only firing for a few hundred feet?

    Reply
  4. Mr Geoff Avatar
    Mr Geoff

    Wow! This is way cool!

    Reply
  5. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Jaako: It went fairly high (I’m guessing 2 or 3K ft.). This is a 16mm very-wide-angle lens tilted up to catch a huge patch of sky. After burnout, the rocket also cruises up for quite a while in relative darkness.

    Or, from another perspective, it was enough to hop over the moon.

    Reply
  6. Pieces of Eye Avatar
    Pieces of Eye

    what are the small orange streaks accompanying the main (green) path?

    Reply
  7. electronic alchemist Avatar
    electronic alchemist

    Fantastic image – splitting the heavens!

    Reply
  8. saravmit singh Avatar
    saravmit singh

    congrats on explore……..

    Reply
  9. msamaclean © Avatar
    msamaclean ©

    Better than fireworks! Nice image!

    Reply
  10. the matt1 Avatar
    the matt1

    Wonderful shot. I wouldn’t have guessed what this was without a caption

    Reply
  11. petervanallen Avatar
    petervanallen

    excellent

    Reply
  12. liam_sheasby Avatar
    liam_sheasby

    wow, great shot

    Reply
  13. TomiTapio Avatar
    TomiTapio

    (views large) oh, it is much fun!

    Reply
  14. Ali Danışman Avatar
    Ali Danışman

    wowwww !!! excellent ..

    Reply
  15. L'aBe Avatar
    L’aBe

    Excellent capture

    Reply
  16. NO SUGAR ADDED Avatar
    NO SUGAR ADDED

    so beautiful!

    Reply
  17. Kirpernicus Avatar
    Kirpernicus

    Cool shot, perfect exposure time.

    Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Eye Candy!, and we’d love to have this added to the group!

    Reply
  18. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Namaste y’all.

    To the notes about the random color pixels; digital astronomy photography becomes an exercise in the statistics of noise. The high-end photographers liquid cool their sensors and build images from a large number of relatively short exposure shots. For bright objects, like the local planets, they integrate an image from video. It’s fascinating, and totally out of my league. This is just a single digital exposure, no Photoshop, and I suspect you are seeing pixels of noise. But I like the aspirational explantions more… (edit: will add this to caption)

    Reply
  19. James Neeley Avatar
    James Neeley

    Wondeful shot.
    >>>seen on
    1-2-3 group

    Reply
  20. CW61 Avatar
    CW61

    Great capture!

    Reply
  21. pierre_bl Avatar
    pierre_bl

    The World Through My Eyes

    Reply
  22. plej_photo Avatar
    plej_photo

    I first thought it was a lightning! Great work!

    Reply
  23. Robbao Avatar
    Robbao

    Amazing image, great capture!!

    Reply
  24. Dor Dan Avatar
    Dor Dan

    WOW!!!! Love the color and composition!

    Reply
  25. Rob Overcash Photography Avatar
    Rob Overcash Photography

    very cool

    —
    Seen in the group"1-2-3" (?)

    Reply
  26. Atrøphos Avatar
    Atrøphos

    simply amazing.. congratz for the explore!

    Reply
  27. Baptiste Lacoste Avatar
    Baptiste Lacoste

    Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Dreams of Light, and we’d love to have this added to the group!

    Reply
  28. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    Thanks for the explanation on colored pixels / noise. Didn’t know about all that. =)

    Reply
  29. ATSICHLAS Avatar
    ATSICHLAS

    So amazing!

    Reply
  30. Socceraholic Avatar
    Socceraholic

    how did you manage to get the perfect settings for it?
    i mean sometimes i wanna do some stuff for shots that happen one time but i can’t find the settings.. it’s either over or under exposed by miles.. !!

    any hints? ohh,, this is really wonderful!

    Reply
  31. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    lots of practice… and knowing the subject’s behavior from many prior encounters…. =)

    Oh, and some luck too! I held it open in bulb mode with manual focus and went with my gut on the settings. The first shot was way overexposed. And the next two took my breath away. Actually, I like this one more, it was the third of the bunch, and I was trying to use the red moon to light up the scattered clouds a bit more… and I had the rare benefit (photographically speaking =) that my rocket motor ruptured mid flight:

    Light Painting Under the Milky Way

    The Milky Way on the right is my fave shot from last year.

    Oh, one important tip comes to mind; I set up my tripod in advance before the sun went down so that the horizon line would be straight. I knew where the moon would rise (roughly) from the prior night. So I left my tripod there for a few hours until it got dark enough.

    Reply
  32. >michael Avatar
    >michael

    Excellent image

    Reply
  33. Socceraholic Avatar
    Socceraholic

    so, a scientist and a photographer.. !
    that’s a nice combo ! thanks alot for the tips.. 🙂

    wish you all the luck!

    Reply
  34. poca-traça Avatar
    poca-traça

    No words.

    Reply
  35. narrow discussion Avatar
    narrow discussion

    Hola, soy el administrador de un grupo llamado The DreamCatchers ~ COMMENT ON ANY ONE!! y nos encantaría agregar esto al grupo.

    That’s….. oh, my! I see some ET’s over here. 😛 😛 😛
    A different picture…. Creative, new.

    —
    Seen in the group"Darkness Falls On Faerie Land" (?)

    Reply
  36. MarcelGermain Avatar
    MarcelGermain

    Impressive!

    Letter "G" Theme at:
    The World Through My Eyes

    Reply
  37. A Garazo / Ninakupenda images Avatar
    A Garazo / Ninakupenda images


    I saw this in the 50+ Faves group and Faved it.

    Reply
  38. plecojan Avatar
    plecojan

    Fantastic!!!! Thanks for the technical info as well.!

    Thank you for posting in the
    Letter "G" Theme at:
    The World Through My Eyes

    Reply
  39. Gustavo Fariña Avatar
    Gustavo Fariña

    Gorgeous! Congratulations.

    Reply
  40. SOUTHERN HEART Avatar
    SOUTHERN HEART

    a href=http://www.flickr.com/groups/a-class/>just A

    Your photo is “A” Class ( Please, Post 1-Comment 2 )
    Seen in “A” Class group </a

    Reply
  41. boiling flavor Avatar
    boiling flavor

    really awesome 😀

    Reply
  42. imported structure Avatar
    imported structure

    Cool!

    just A

    Your photo is “A” Class ( Please, Post 1-Comment 2 )
    Seen in “A” Class group

    Reply
  43. jay_navarro66 Avatar
    jay_navarro66

    just A

    Your photo is “A” Class ( Please, Post 1-Comment 2 )
    Seen in “A” Class group

    Reply
  44. Iñigo Sierra Avatar
    Iñigo Sierra

    Wonderful pic, congratulations!

    Reply
  45. jmparks Avatar
    jmparks

    Great pic man, love the color range of it!

    Reply
  46. davidrombaut Avatar
    davidrombaut

    Impressive !!


    I invite you to add this great 100+ faves picture to the 100+ Faves group.

    Reply
  47. [bastian.] Avatar
    [bastian.]

    Amazing. Great picture. Thanks for sharing and the explanation.

    Reply
  48. macropoulos Avatar
    macropoulos

    WOW!
    —
    Seen in *GreatPixGallery 100 Faves+ (?)

    Reply
  49. vigorous cub Avatar
    vigorous cub


    I saw this in the 100+ Faves group and Faved it.

    Reply
  50. Werner Schnell (1.stream) Avatar
    Werner Schnell (1.stream)


    I saw this in the 100+ Faves group and Faved it.

    Reply

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