Our club had an outreach event tonight at a nearby high school. We set up our telescopes to show adults and children the full moon and the planet Saturn. I was setting up my telescope to show a woman and her two children the full moon. I heard someone say "What is that?" "Look at that thing in the sky! What is that?" So I turned and saw something I had never seen before! Then a friend said "It's a rocket that was launched from Europe this afternoon." It was an unbelievable sight! I had been taking some photographs of people observing with my SONY a7 camera but I had put it back in the car. "Oh well, no camera, no photo..." Then I noticed that the woman who was waiting to look through my scope was shooting photographs of it with her phone! So I am a complete dolt! I immediately grabbed my phone and started shooting! Here is my shot. Don has posted that it is an Ariane 6 rocket launched by the European Space Agency this afternoon The Ariane 6 rocket lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, today at approximately 4:03 PM. What an unbelievable sight this was! Apparently the rocket was venting unused fuel.


2 comments:
Amazing sight and photo. Hard to imagine a rocket that was launched from Europe. Thank you to your club for hosting these programs.
I saw this on the news. It looks so cool!
Post a Comment