Anybody ever shot a shuttle launch?

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Originally Posted by samoksner

The shuttle is REALLY far away from where people are allowed.
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And the shuttle is a REALLY large object to photograph, especially with rocket plumes and such.


I had a good discussion with a friend who was in Florida for the May launch. We used DoF plus, a great iPhone app, to calculate Field of View. He expected to be 9 miles away from the launch pad, which is about 14,500 meters away. Dof plus says the field of view for a 600mm lens at 500m subject distance is 18.47m wide by 12.31m high. Extrapolated, that'd be 536m wide by 357m high. The launch stack is about 55m high, so 1/7th of your frame is the shuttle stack itself at that distance. I bet that's good enough, as you want to have some room for the rocket plumes and to keep your eye on the ball.


Making some assumptions (since the app won't go to 800mm), the 800mm would give you a field of view that's 402m by 268m. That helps, but I bet you'd have challenges aiming and tracking with that much lens.

Well the causeway tickets sold out before I was able to get them, so it looks like I'll be trying to see it from Titusville (which is 12 or 13 miles away I think). Keith, is this where you got your pic's from?

I shot that on the back side of Port Canaveral between the Disney Cruise entrance and the Air Force Gate. It is about 12-13 miles but completely unobstructed and usually easy to get into. Titusville usually gets pretty packed. I don't know about night time though.


Where are you coming from?


I have a buddy that always offers use of his 400 2.8. Maybe I should take him up on that offer. He has a 2x converter too.