Neat pictures I've taken

[Pete Zicato]

Do not want.

[glatt]

I liked "NASA's Wallops Flight Facility" on FB so I could get detailed information on their launches.

Turns out the launches are visible for hundreds of miles, even in the daytime. From the comments on their page of who just saw the launch 30 minutes ago, it was visible in Collegville, PA, for example.

Anyway, this was the view from my building's dining room.


This is an unmanned ISS supply rocket.

[BigV]

From Orbital Sciences, I believe. A previously scheduled launch that had been delayed due to the cold weather.

[glatt]

Yep. I've been putting each new launch time into my calendar.

I was skeptical I'd be able to see anything in the daytime. It's 111 miles from the launch pad to my office building. So after bringing my good camera into work for two days, I said "screw it" this morning and left it at home. But the cell phone took a decent enough picture when it finally did launch today.

Now I need to scour Google Earth for a good night time viewing location near my house. There's a tree in the way from all our windows at home.

[glatt]

I didn't take this picture, but this shows where the launch could theoretically be seen, and how long after liftoff it would take to see anything.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

Now I need to scour Google Earth for a good night time viewing location near my house. There's a tree in the way from all our windows at home.

Dan Snyder could get that tree removed for you.

[chrisinhouston]

One of the last shots from my Istanbul adventure taken on the Sea of Marmara near the Istanbul airport.

[glatt]

gorgeous!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Great picture, and your titles are so exotic.

[chrisinhouston]

I shot this one about 10 minutes later when the sun was just below the horizon. We had a 5am flight the next morning that we had to get up ar 2AM for! Took us 23 hours to get home after that!

[glatt]

Did you sleep on the plane at all?

I can sometimes get as much as 30 minutes of sleep at a time on a plane.

[chrisinhouston]

Our first flight was on a very uncomfortable Lufthansa A320 with hard seats so I maybe dozed a bit but not much. Landed in Frankfurt and had a 5 hour layover which really increased the effect of sleep deprivation. Then flew a direct flight back to Houston that was about 11 hours. We were in Business Class so the lie flat seats were nice and we actually both slept 4-5 hours or so. We landed at about 7pm so when we got home and unpacked a bit we went to bed and actually slept about 8 hours and pretty much were readjusted after that. I always do better flying west than east with the time change.

[glatt]

Super envious of the lay flat seats.

Only time I've not flown coach was for a 1 hour flight down to Atlanta. Business class was really nice, but I didn't need it for such a short flight.

[chrisinhouston]

United's new seats are really nice and you actually get some comfort. They served lunch when we took off and we did what they call the business style where it all comes out at once and not in courses so we could eat and relax and then sleep. The food was ok but nothing special. I've seen a real drop in food quality since the merger. Not sure when we will fly first or business this year as I dropped from Platinum to Silver and my wife went from 1K to Gold. Oh well.

[chrisinhouston]

Always fun to walk the back streets of cities we visit and photograph odd things. These manikins were in front of a store in an old section of Istanbul with lots of clothing including little Sultan costumes for boys to wear for their circumcision party which in Turkey usually happens when the boy is 8-14 years old. OUCH!

I assume the smart jackets and tie ensembles are for after the boy becomes a man!