Also, in a separate analysis Geoffrey Forden at Arms Control Wonk investigated the source of the shockwaves from various features on the Atlas V rocket. Ten or eleven separate shockwaves are visible which are identified with corresponding features on the Atlas V. I’m not sure if it’s totally accurate or not, but it seems plausible.

APOD: 2010 February 23 – Exceptional Rocket Waves Destroy Sun Dog

It was very cool to see the picture on APOD. I got a decent amount of feedback and contact from people. Lots of it on twitter but also a few emails. There was also a healthy discussion of the cause of the shockwaves on the APOD discussion board.

As a nice coincidence for the evening it was followed a few minutes later by an Iridium Flare. Sadly, incoming clouds made it difficult to see, although I think I caught it as it was fading…

I found out about of these events via tweets from the @overcville account. The service is provided by orbiting-frog.com which has twitter accounts for a variety of locations. If you’re on twitter, should should check it out. And if there isn’t one for your location, you can request one. It is handy for notifying you of upcoming

For a more complete list, heavens-above.com will show you passes of more objects (satellites, comets, spacecraft, etc.) based on your location with charts showing their location in the sky. The only downside is that you have to remember to check it

As with STS-130, the SDO launch was scrubbed on the first day. After going through the whole 1 hour launch window on 10 February, the winds were consistently too high (above 20 knots). We thought we were going to be able to launch at the very end of the window and even came out of the hold at T-4 min. Sadly, winds went above the limit after just 1 second! So, it was scrubbed for 24 hours.

We tried again today. The launch window was from 10:23 – 11:23 and the winds were looking better today. There was a slight worry about clouds, but they didn’t prove to be an issue.

After yesterday’s scrub we were all anxious to see the rocket launch today. The weather is forecast to be bad tomorrow (rain, rain, rain) so Saturday would have been the next chance. During the scheduled hold at T-4 minutes, we heard that the weather was go and they were aiming for launch at the beginning of the window!

At 10:19, the countdown resumed to much cheering an excitement. Aleya was jumping around in anticipation as the clock ticked down. With 10 seconds remaining, the crowd helped things along: “9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1.. 0!”

The Atlas V was launched without booster rockets so the initial acceleration was slow. It seemed to take an agonizingly long time for the rocket to move… Finally, (it seemed!) the rocket was well on it’s way.

As the rocket picked up speed we followed it skyward. It continued climbing upwards, heading for a cloud and a sun dog. We were then treated to an amazing sight: the shockwave from the rocket’s supersonic travel rippled outwards through the cloud, destroying the sun dog:

Video of the event was captured by Anna Herbst, and hosted on spaceweather.com (.mov movie file). Very cool, I highly recommend watching it.

After blowing through the cloud, the rocket began creating a visible contrail behind it, snaking skyward.

We kept watching until we lost view of the rocket, well on its way to orbit.

I had a fantastic weekend as part of the group of twitter correspondents selected to cover the launch and associated events. It was an excellent group of people and we had a great time witnessing the launch of a much anticipated satellite. For some basic info on the goals of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, see the SDO website or this nice summary by Nicole, the Noisy Astronomer.

View all 4 photos from launch here: STS-130 Launch on flickr

The probable last night launch of the space shuttle program was an incredible event to witness. I can’t begin to describe the excitement when they issued the final “GO” for launch, with 9 minutes left in the countdown. And seeing the launch was an amazing experience…

We just got back to the hotel and contrary to a previous experience, we were able to get back relatively quickly. But, it is early in the morning, so I am going to call it a night. More later…

The mass of cars exiting the causeway clogged up the road and the interstate. Fortunately we never needed to get on the interstate, but it was slow going to get to our hotel near the interstate.

Since the launch window is open for the next two days (I heard for ten minutes each day), we are going to try again tonight. The launch will be a bit earlier tonight if it goes. Can’t say I have much more to add than that.. More after tomorrow morning’s launch attempt…

See the rest of the pictures here: STS 130 Launch Attempt #1 on flickr

The launch of STS-130 will be cool as it is likely to be the last night lauch of a space shuttle before they are retired. Even more exciting is the SDO launch, because Aleya works on that team!

As part of the SDO launch, there is going to be a “tweetup” where various people on twitter will meet up for the launch. It looks like a great group going and it should be a great time. Keep an eye on #sdoisgo next week for SDO related tweets.

I am planning to be in touch one way or another as the events unfold. The most immediate method will be through my twitter feed, where you will get stream of consciousness updates as things are happening. My goal is also to blog on a regular basis (every day? every other day?). I am planning to take pictures, and will hopefully get those onto flickr the day of.

Leave comments below if you have any suggestions for other ways I can disseminate information!

ASTRON JIVE Daily Image for 22 January 2010