5, 4, 3, 2, 1, launch!
We spent the last three days at Balls 29, a big experimental rocket launch event in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada - the same place where Burning Man takes place. A big rocket is launched every few minutes.
The majority of the rockets are experimental, people often mix their own solid propellant. With this about 1/3 of the launches fail, some with a big bada boom. For safety, the bigger the motor, the farther away the launch. This launchpad is 1500 feet away from the rocket camp. Big rockets ascend 100,000 feet or more, which is 3 times higher than the cruising altitude of commercial aircraft. The fastest rockets reach Mach 5 (5 times the speed of sound, 3800 MPH, 6100 km/h), and pull up to 80 g.
The black smoke of this rocket is from a commercial Aerotech K850 "sparky motor”, burning bits of titanium sponge produce the sparks. My rocket buddy Steve Jurvetson has flown Vertical Assault many times, this time to 11'000 feet. He duct taped a camera to the rocket, you can see it on the left side about half way up. We recovered the rocket, it is now in our garage. However, the camera ripped off at high speed of up to Mach 1. We searched for a while but could not find it on the playa.
I processed a balanced and a realistic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.
Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.
-- ƒ/6.3, 210 mm, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC7514_hdr1bal1rea1g.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, launch!
We spent the last three days at Balls 29, a big experimental rocket launch event in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada - the same place where Burning Man takes place. A big rocket is launched every few minutes.
The majority of the rockets are experimental, people often mix their own solid propellant. With this about 1/3 of the launches fail, some with a big bada boom. For safety, the bigger the motor, the farther away the launch. This launchpad is 1500 feet away from the rocket camp. Big rockets ascend 100,000 feet or more, which is 3 times higher than the cruising altitude of commercial aircraft. The fastest rockets reach Mach 5 (5 times the speed of sound, 3800 MPH, 6100 km/h), and pull up to 80 g.
The black smoke of this rocket is from a commercial Aerotech K850 "sparky motor”, burning bits of titanium sponge produce the sparks. My rocket buddy Steve Jurvetson has flown Vertical Assault many times, this time to 11'000 feet. He duct taped a camera to the rocket, you can see it on the left side about half way up. We recovered the rocket, it is now in our garage. However, the camera ripped off at high speed of up to Mach 1. We searched for a while but could not find it on the playa.
I processed a balanced and a realistic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.
Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.
-- ƒ/6.3, 210 mm, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC7514_hdr1bal1rea1g.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography