Your stories
Brandon Yoshizawa shot deep into the beautiful vastness of space and was astounded when he captured the Spacex Falcon 9 rocket launch
An American photographer gets more than he bargained for when a rocket launch interrupted his astro shot…
All of these photos were taken on the same night during the Spacex rocket launch that carried an Argentine environmental satellite into space. I was able to capture these unique shots with a little planning and a lot of luck.
I was up in the Eastern Sierras capturing autumn colours and shots of the Milky Way. I had two Nikon D750s set up with this composition; one with the Nikon 50mm lens and another with the Nikon 1424mm lens. I had finished taking foreground exposures of the trees and mountains and adjusted my settings in preparation for the Milky Way to come into frame.
As I was waiting, the launch just so happened to be directly in both of my cameras’ view. I had to adjust the exposures of both cameras as the plume from the rocket exhaust was very bright. The first photo, shot on my 50mm lens, is when the first and second stages of the rocket separated and the plume took on the shape of a flower [1]. The second is when the plume expanded and produced some brilliant colours, almost looking like a deep space image of the galaxy [2]. The next was a shot of the second stage of the rocket curving around the earth and into orbit, where it carries the satellite [3]. For the final shot (captured on my 14-24mm lens) there’s a wide view of the second stage rocket with the Milky Way galaxy above [4].
All of my photos have a separate foreground exposure
due to the huge dynamic range between the land and the rocket. However, both cameras remained in the same position for all of these shots.
The exposures of the rocket were taken at a higher ISO, so having the D750 was perfect as it can handle low-light/high ISO shots well with minimal distracting noise artefacts. The brilliant display of lights and colours happen during the twilight hours when the low sun illuminates the exhaust plume from the rocket. While I knew about the launch, I wasn’t sure it would be visible from my location, being at an elevation of 8500ft. In addition, launch delays can occur, with reasons spanning from technical issues to bad weather.
Luckily, though, it launched and not only was it one of the most marvellous things I’ve ever had the chance to see, but to be able to also capture it in photos allows me to preserve this memory forever.