Any tips for viewing/photographing a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral?

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Wifey bought me a nice bucket list pressy for my B'day, so I'm heading over to Orlando, Florida next weekend for the Space-x/Kacific1 Falcon9 launch on Dec 15, and staying on for the Boeing Starliner Atlas V launch on Dec 20.

Pretty sure we're at Banana Creek viewing area for the first one, and thinking of getting a "Feel the Heat" package from Kennedy space centre to view the second one at their SaturnV/Apollo viewing site.

Has anyone else done either of these? Any tips?
Any Photography tips for the launches?

Cheers Andy
PS: Keen to get my butt in a NASCAR ride along at Daytona too - anyone else done that?

[Startrek (Martin)]

Andy
My wife and I visited the KSC August last year after spending 2 weeks travelling through Canada
We did a few extra tours including the Cape Canaveral Mercury launch site, block house and launch control room bunker, Mercury Atlas launch site and memorial , Apollo 1 memorial and Apollo / Saturn 5 tour

Our bus stopped for 5 minutes at the Banana creek launch viewing area. Only one thing I can say , you are a long long way from the launch pad so bring a good quality tripod, camera and lens

We spent 3 days visiting the complex and surrounding areas and stayed in a 3 star hotel at Coco beach near the pier

One bit of advice , there’s absolutely no public transport from Coco beach , Titusville and other towns surrounding the KSC so you have to rely on cabs ( Car hire is ridiculously expensive when you add the insurances ) Luckily the hotel organised a pick up and drop off to the KSC each day for $30 each way ( 35km away )

Hope the above is off some help

PS: You will absolutely be gobsmacked how huge this place is. Also flying into Orlando I noticed a huge building in the distance through some low level cloud , you guessed it , the Apollo Vehicle Assembly Building ( VAB ) Our tour bus drove past the VAB about 50 metres away. It’s another eye opener !!

Enjoy the trip and experience, especially the launches !!

Martin

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Originally Posted by Startrek

Andy

Our bus stopped for 5 minutes at the Banana creek launch viewing area. Only one thing I can say , you are a long long way from the launch pad so bring a good quality tripod, camera and lens


One bit of advice , there’s absolutely no public transport from Coco beach , Titusville and other towns surrounding the KSC so you have to rely on cabs ( Car hire is ridiculously expensive when you add the insurances ) Luckily the hotel organised a pick up and drop off to the KSC each day for $30 each way ( 35km away )

Hope the above is off some help

Enjoy the trip and experience, especially the launches !!

Martin

Hey thanks for that Martin - Getting exited now - I can't wait!

[RyanJones]

I have nothing to add that will help but I must say I’m incredibly envious of the experience you’re about to have. It features very high on my bucket list too. I hope you have an amazing time and a safe trip.

[JA]

Hi Andy,

My suggestions would be to bring multiple cameras to shoot the scene. As a minimum I would suggest two cameras capable of 4K video. Set one up as a wide shot for the whole launch pad and surrounds to the full height of the vehicle and another framed in tight to the vehicle on a good quality video fluid head tripod to track the vehicle during takeoff and climb until it disappears. Also of benefit in that situation would be a power operated zoom to smoooothly zoom in as you track the liftoff and disappearance to infinity. Get a nice tight framing of the engines during launch.

Then when you get home a little video editing/action music to show us your exploits. BTW make sure you are setup to capture the audio of the rocket takeoff. It might clip the audio level. It's a wonderful cackle sound if you can capture it. See this video from 15seconds before launch (at 3:10elapsed time) and listen to the incredible rocket engine roar that can be heard starting from around 3:40 and really getting full by 3:50 onwards ...

Click here to load the video

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Preferably play it on good loudspeakers rather than a through a laptop to get a sense of the guttural roar.


Have a great trip.

Best
JA

[Tulloch (Andrew)]

Wow - great video (and audio).

Thanks for sharing, really really jealous now...