by John Hales
I set up on top of the roof as I have a good south view and the last launch was in a good position from up there. I was set up with my 20X80 orion binos and a steady mount
After watching for about 5 minutes, up it went. Through the binos, a very red flame was visible. At stage separation, I watched a few burning chunks, orange colored, fall and when the 2nd lit off, the flame turned to white-orange. A neat plume was created when the 2nd stage lit also
As the rocket got high enough, my field of view was dominated by 4 large white jets of flame from the motors. Finally, the view turned a beautiful turquoise-green and ended the show for me. I watched the glowing green cloud for several minutes and thought about the Helix and the Owl, how they would appear in our skies if located much closer
I now keep the Vandenberg website in my bookmarks and it looks like several great launches are scheduled for March and April. Especially the Titan launch! I am considering a day trip down towards Vandenberg to catch this one! Anyone interested? Hope a lot of you got to see this!