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January 30, 2014
Rocket Streak and Star Trails |
These images were taken as a series of short exposures over a 3 hour period on January 23rd. This was very close to the Kennedy Space Center and captured a night launch of an Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite TDRS-L. The apparent motion of the stars through the sky is just a reflection of the daily rotation of planet Earth on its axis. Launching toward the east in the direction of Earth's rotation, adds rotation velocity to the rocket. Its orbital period will match Earth's rotation and the satellite will be suspended in the sky. This is such an awesome image because it's just very vivid and shows the rotation velocity of the rocket.
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