MANHATTAN, NY – This past Friday SpaceX had successfully executed its 18th and final mission for the year 2017, which is to send a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base into the California sky.
The tail of the skyrocket was a beautiful yet unusual sight. Because most people were not aware of the rocket launching, most of them were left confused. Many theories even emerged about an alien invasion while some people simply admired the pretty sight.
Whilst the rest of the world was confused and marveling at the sky rocket, one photographer Jesse Watson thought of taking a video of the unusual event. An eye-catching time-lapse video of the tail of the rocket traversing through space was posted by the mentioned photographer.
Watson who lives in Yuma, Arizona is not new to the whole phenomenon. According to a known source, the photographer has been keeping his eyes on the SpaceX rocket launchings for quite some time now.
It is astounding how a space launch conducted in California would be viewed by a person living all the way in Arizona, which happens to be about 400 miles away.
Watson had no clue how to shoot a rocket before. He only made use of a map-centric sun and moon calculator called The Photographer’s Ephemeris, not to mention Google maps, to create an estimation of where the shots should be set up.
Since he was basing his shots purely on estimation, he decided to use four cameras and four lenses installed at disparate locations to make sure he does not miss the moment. Three of those cameras were functioning under the time lapse setting while the remaining one, was functioning under a telephoto mode. His meticulousness for the moment was due to the fact that these things do not happen every day. With that, if he misses the shot now, there is no taking it back.
Watson expressed his passion for taking photos and videos of the SpaceX projects. He also admitted that his initial shot was a bit offset. However, he was able to make use of his sleek video and photo editing skills to rearrange the output.
The night of the rocket launching was already filled with conspiracy theories, but when Watson posted his time lapse video online, social media lit up.
People commended Watson for his wonderful shot despite the lack of apparatus and sufficient knowledge when it comes to shooting a rocket, and yet coming up with an awesome masterpiece.
People who thought that the sight was connected to some alien invasion laughed the moment off after realizing that the whole event was just about the final rocket launching of the rocket project.
Watson admitted that his video attempt was a failure at first, but because he did not lose hope, he managed to wrap about 2,000 images and create a time lapse video out of it. Even Watson himself did not expect the output to reveal this kind of beauty. The end product illustrated the rocket itself, not to mention its tail leaving behind a SpaceX holistic view.
