Shooting the shuttle launch tonight

[ParkerYates]

Hello from Florida. Tonight I plan on using 2 HV20's to record the shuttle launch and would like a suggestions on the best settings to accomplish this. I will post it on vimeo by Friday and update the footage thread with it. Make sure if you give me a suggestion, you know what you're doing, since this will most likely be the last nighttime shuttle launch ever.

[V10TDI]

I'll filming tonight as well. I'll be in my back yard, which is about 30 miles due west of the launch pad. Where will you be filming from?

I checked the ISS orbit at the human spaceflight web site. From what I can tell the ISS is due to pass over us ~3am ET tracking to the north. So when the shuttle takes off @ 2:28am ET, it should also run north up the coast.

I was thinking about setting up on a tripod and use the wide angle to film the whole launch statically. Don't move the camera at all. The last launch I tracked with the telephoto lens.

I'm debating my settings now.

I think I'm going to use 24p and probably opt for spotlight or night mode to eliminate gain.

[Ian-T]

I've never shot the night launches only daytime ones. I would think maybe the fireworks mode would be sufficient for that....or maybe even leaving it in auto mode. I guess it depends on how close up you are. Are you filming on Kennedy or from a good distance away?
I'm think going to try and catch the landing this time around.

[cvardy]

Man, I'm jealous. I would absolutely love to video the shuttle taking off.

[V10TDI]

Best laid plans...

I was able to see the glow of the lift-off...but that was it. Clouds blocked my view...

Yawn...back to bed.

[ParkerYates]

Someone bumped my video-camera that I had running after I had gotten it focused on the launch site and running. I was about 4 miles away and got about 3 seconds of really cool footage. It was a shame, I had no idea there would be thousands of people around me when I got there. The people were stepping in front of my other camera I had on bulb. It was a bit of a mess. The footage I have in focus looks promising, it was a shame the clouds rolled in making the shuttle disappear behind a vail of grey rather quickly. I'll still have the video up by Friday but I'm going to have to chalk this one up to learning the necessity of isolation in such a volatile location and situation.

[V10TDI]

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

[conquerorhowie]

that's a bummer

[w.pasman]

Cool liighting effects! But I don't see any proof that any rocket is involved in the effects ;-) I think you need to bring a 1000mm+ telescope next time

[V10TDI]

Now here's a good pic...love to see the camera that snapped it. It's a big picture so I linked it...

Shuttle Liftoff (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0803/STS123Endeavour_08pd0714.jpg)

[jmorton]

Just for future reference: if you shoot such a scene as a Shuttle launch by hand or with a steadicam, in post you can use (I think) After Effects to keep the ascending craft steady in the frame and crop the video around the edges. I forget what this is called or the name of the effect but I saw a video tutorial on using this technique and it works very good.

JM :hv20-smilie03:

[V10TDI]

Just for future reference: if you shoot such a scene as a Shuttle launch by hand or with a steadicam, in post you can use (I think) After Effects to keep the ascending craft steady in the frame and crop the video around the edges. I forget what this is called or the name of the effect but I saw a video tutorial on using this technique and it works very good.

JM :hv20-smilie03:

I think there are several...I've used Deshaker (free) and it works great.

[V10TDI]

Here's another beautiful photo of the launch...it's big, so I'm posting a link.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0803/endeavorlaunch_brown_big.jpg