Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
ƒ/3.5
10 mm
1/0
400

The original burning man.

My evenings are punctuated with preparation of various rockets for the Black Rock Desert launches later this month. Night launches with LED sequencers on board, video rockets and a bigger V2 – weighing in at 100lbs so far… and I still need to add three parachutes and two flight computers. First flight will with an Animal Motor Works N2801 spewing a shower of titanium sparklers.

Met today with a colleague who has a system to accelerate his rocket from 0 to 600 MPH in 0.25 seconds. Getting the electronics and even the propellant grains to survive over 400 g’s is a challenge!

This looks like the best of the NASA shots, but it is by Nils from Sweden, posted with permission.

(P.S. I don’t have access to my photos right now. Upgrading to Snow Leopard corrupted my hard drive, irreperably. Slowly recovering everything. Almost as bad as a Microsoft OS… I suspected a X.0 install on a near-full HDD, so I backed up everything right before; nevertheless, iPhoto will not open)

91 responses to “Icarus at Night”

  1. stunning, powerful, crazy!!

  2. This is perfect. NASA should pay you for this.

  3. On the OS saga, Apple is having a good upgrade process overall, and my experiences are an interesting anomaly for them.

    So I emailed Steve Jobs. He got right back and connected me with a senior OS engineer… with the requisite French accent of course. He was very helpful and deeply knowledgable of the whole install process.

    He is also very interested in why the crashes happpened and if we can’t get the install files, he wants to send an engineer out to help us.

    I can totally imagine Microsoft doing the same… 🙂

  4. Unbelievable capture! This is so good! I wish I could see a sight like that someday!! 😀

  5. re the OS saga … " And we had a power outage midway! Sure enough, everything is hosed. " .. not fair! I put a UPS on when I do these kinds of things and nothing ever happens 😉


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

  7. "My Mac crashed, so I emailed Steve Jobs and he got right back" Heheheheh. That is too damn funny. Old SJ working tech support. Classic.

    ps: in case you missed this rocket at 2009 bman…certain folks attained orbit in it, but I don’t think it left the ground…sorta like Jodie Foster in "Contact."

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/loupiote/3911043185/sizes/o/in/set-...

  8. Sbove: awesome photo.

    I was watching that live at night when they were going to "launch" it
    but the wind was howling…

    Any idea what they had plannedx for that night?

  9. Hi, I’m an admin for a group called *** FRATELLO SOLE ♥ SORELLA LUNA *** [ High-Profile Group! ], and we’d love to have this added to the group!

  10. Cool. It *really* does look like something from NASA.

  11. Wow!! this is amazing…Please add this to
    Capturing Magic **Post 1 Award 2**
    GLEN

  12. legal, muito boa, parabéns!!

  13. Negative on that, houston. no idea what they were planning. and just to be clear…the photo link i provided was to loupiote’s photo not mine…his work is great: http://www.flickr.com/photos/loupiote/

  14. This is absolutely fantastic – what a shot!

  15. Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Remenber and sens, and we’d love to have this added to the group!

  16. Hi, I’m an admin for a group called THEORIES OF THE UNIVERSE* Comment please!, and we’d love to have this added to the group!

  17. great shot!
    excellent long exposure… makes me want to launch a few rockets myself 🙂

  18. avlxyz: if you can find your way to the Black Rock Desert, then XPRS is this weekend, RocketMavericks the next, and BALLS the next… Whoo-yea!

  19. Did you see Project Icarus and the $150 space camera in Wired? Here’s their site. Very cool, low-budget space cam.

    space.1337arts.com/

    http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-...?

  20. Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Forno: ovens, kilns, furnaces & heaters, and we’d love to have this added to the group!

  21. I included this image in my latest blog post "What Bob FFFFound"
    check it out…

  22. Stunning….reaching for the heavens.
    jacques

  23. *** Hello!! I’m the Admin for the Nature-Group called LIZA’S Enchanting PHOTO-GARDEN!! (INVITED Only!), and I would really love to see your wonderful image added to our Group!

    A stunning image, dear friend!!

    *** SUCH an ENCHANTING NATURE-IMAGE!!
    Please!! JOIN OUR PHOTO-GARDEN!
    LIZA’S Enchanting PHOTO-GARDEN!
    LIZA’S Enchanting PHOTO-GARDEN! (INVITED Only!)
    You are INVITED to display your wonderful capture in our Pool
    and AWARD ONE (1) of your fellow Artists!!!

    WINNER
    You are my winner!
    Please add this photo to
    http://www.flickr.com/groups/mywinners/

  24. —————-
    WINNER
    Definitely a winner!!!
    You deserve another one.
    Found in http://www.flickr.com/groups/mywinners/
    commented with SICI (2009-08-13)

  25. Quite the eye catcher!

    WINNER
    Definitely a winner!!!
    You deserve another one.
    Found in http://www.flickr.com/groups/mywinners/

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