That's No Moon! (PSLV launch as seen from Chennai)

[linuxguru]

Some pics of the PSLV launch early this morning, as seen from Chennai (about 120 km to the SW).

1) 1st stage solid fuel plume + strap-on booster orange-red plume. Range about 120 km.

2) 2nd stage Vikas (liquid UDMH) engine ignition, purple-white plume. Some of the strap-on solid-fuel boosters may still be burning, but tailing off. Range about 150 km.

3) Vikas engine tailing off, 3rd stage solid engine orange-red plume (at this point, the trajectory has almost become level). Range about 180..200 km.

4) That's No Moon! Actually, it *is* the half-moon. However, the faint blue dot to the left of it (barely visible) is the 4th-stage liquid MMH plume. Range about 250 - 300 km, heading Eastward over the Bay of Bengal towards the Andamans.

(All pics taken with a Nikon D60 and 300mm f/4.0 AF Nikkor, 1/100 sec, f/4.5, handheld, manual focus.)

 

[Naturelover]

Great stuff! Keep it coming.

 

[anubisX]

Excellent job

 

[linuxguru]

And here's the GSLV launch this morning, as seen from Chennai:

It was a bit cloudy, so I could get only a few shots of the 1st-stage burn with the strap-on boosters still attached (visible in the pic above) as well as the nose-cone in place. Range is about 125 to 150 km.

 

[Marzi]

Superb clicks :clapping:

 

[GeorgeO]

Excellent shots!

 

[mathan]

Excellent Pics!!! From which part of Chennai was that visible?

 

[linuxguru]

I took all the snaps from Defence Colony (near Guindy and K.K.Nagar in South-West Chennai), but it would be visible from anywhere within a range of about 200 km from SHAR, weather permitting. The night launches should be visible from high vantage points in Bangalore, 320 km away, if you know where to look and what to look for. However, there have only been two night launches in the entire history of ISRO, both in 2013-14.

 

[saketb]

Amazing shots indeed!! Thanks a lot for sharing.

 

[linuxguru]

There's another GSLV launch today at around 16:50 if there's no glitch. It's cloudy now at Chennai, but if it clears up by then, the launch should be easily visible in the Northern sky from anywhere in Chennai within a radius of ~150 km from SHAR.

 

[mpw]

yes - and the news is the GSLV made it successfully. The headlines tell you of exorcising the cryogenic engine "ghosts " and that can only be great news on this
happy day of Onam !

Bravo and Kudos to all the folks at ISRO who repeatedly thru their dint of hardwork and learnings from failures.. make us proud.

Long may it be that way.

regards

 

[Naturelover]

There's another GSLV launch today at around 16:50 if there's no glitch. It's cloudy now at Chennai, but if it clears up by then, the launch should be easily visible in the Northern sky from anywhere in Chennai within a radius of ~150 km from SHAR.

How was the weather? Any pics?

 

[linuxguru]

How was the weather? Any pics?

Completely clouded over for over 24 hours where I reside (south-west part of Chennai), so no pics of the launch. It cleared up only today - maybe people in some other parts of Chennai had better luck with the weather on the launch date.

 

[pksnathan]

Excellent pictures.Informative too.

Thanking you,

pksnathan

 

[linuxguru]

The sky was a bit hazy and cloudy today, but I managed to get a pic of the PSLV C30 launch today. This is the 1st stage burn, and not much is visible except the plume and the outline of the PSLV, a few seconds before it vanished behind clouds. Up to that point everything looked like previous launches, and it looks like Astrosat has been successfully placed into orbit - we'll know in a few hours. Range is about 120 km from SHAR, as seen from Ekkattuthangal (near St.Thomas Mount).

 

[sunder]

The sky was a bit hazy and cloudy today, but I managed to get a pic of the PSLV C30 launch today. This is the 1st stage burn, and not much is visible except the plume and the outline of the PSLV, a few seconds before it vanished behind clouds. Up to that point everything looked like previous launches, and it looks like Astrosat has been successfully placed into orbit - we'll know in a few hours. Range is about 120 km from SHAR, as seen from Ekkattuthangal (near St.Thomas Mount).

Thank you for the picture. Our Astrosat will write the history of ISRO in a new dimension.
Cheers.

 

[Fantastic]

I watched the morning launch . Missed the evening one. Didn't know there was one. Any idea when the next one is ?
Nice picture. Is the grain because you compressed the picture or cropped it and magnified it ?

 

[linuxguru]

Today's launch was in the morning at 10 AM, not evening (the earlier pics in the thread are of different launches, including a night launch).

The sky was hazy today, and that probably caused a lot of speckle noise in the image. There may also have been a bit of flare from the lens and filter used in broad daylight. The image is also cropped down from ~10 Mpixels to 800x600 ~= 0.5 Mpixels, so the grain stands out. I did try to reduce the noise a bit with GIMP, but the noise increased a lot when the contrast was dialled up to try to locate the outline of the PSLV (which was barely visible due to the haze today). Basically, a combination of factors - ideal shooting conditions are on cold, dark nights with still, clear air - but there have only been two such night launches by ISRO. No idea when the next night launch is likely to be, but it's probably going to be one of the navigational satellites.

 

[linuxguru]

Pics from today's PSLV launch at 9:25 AM - a bit clearer than last time, because the weather was better and we had showers at Chennai yesterday which seem to have cleaned out a bit of the atmospheric dust and haze.

1) 1st stage HTPB (rubber) burn with boosters still attached. The reddish hue from the Strotium Perchlorate thrust-vector control is visible, and the 4 stages of the launch vehicle are barely visible.

2) 1st stage and booster sepration, followed by 2nd stage Vikas UDMH engine ignition. At least 4 distinct contrails from the boosters are visible, along with a small yellowish dot of the main plume. The colours are heavily shifted in post processing to show details - it was behind some wispy clouds and near the sun at this point.

Both pics taken from near St.Thomas Mount in Chennai, at a range of about 120 to 180 km from the launch vehicle. I hope the satellites went into orbit and work OK - two have been built by college students.

 

[cha_indian]

I recorded a video from one of the roof tops of a hotel. Initially looks like a asteroid and then looks like a diwali rocket.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNGZ8lNeT5Oq3iy5TkEfuXVVyUJbm3zNIMeGA1w