Three years ago, I was incredibly jealous of my coworker Robert Hurt, who happened to have a camera and a tripod handy when the sky suddenly lit up with the colorful contrails of a missile launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (See his photos from that night here.) Apparently it’s not too common for these things to happen at just the right time for such a spectacular show, and they never used to advertise them in advance, either.

Luckily, that’s no longer true. I was totally jazzed yesterday morning to find an email from another co-worker, forwarding information about the first twilight launch in three years – scheduled for Thursday evening. I had plenty of time to read up on the phenomenon (Viewing Vandenberg AFB Launches, Photographing Vandenberg AFB Launches), and to run home for my camera and tripod.

Jeff drove up to Pasadena around 6:30, and we cruised around campus looking for the best spot to see the trails. We settled on the parking structure on Holliston, as it had the most treeless space around it, and relatively dim lighting.

I started with the telephoto lens on, thinking that it would be good for focusing on small parts of the action. That was a mistake! We kept reloading the countdown page on Jeff’s PDA, until we saw that it was good to launch in 90 seconds. We were looking off to the northwest when I suddenly saw a thick streak of white racing upwards and south, almost due west. I dragged the tripod over to a better viewing position, snapped a couple of shots of the first-stage burn, and hollered at poor Jeff to grab the wide angle lens instead.

Got the wide-angle on in time to shoot the stage separation:

After the second stage separated, I lost track of the actual missile zooming onwards and upwards, and concentrated on photographing the glowing contrails left by the first stage. Lots of water and fuel particles are left floating in the air, and the winds of the upper atmosphere quickly wrap them into a corkscrew shape. The sun had set about 40 minutes earlier from my position, but sunlight was still reflecting off those particles and easily visible from darkened Pasadena.

Nifty contrails:

Unfortunately, the whole show only lasted about 10 or 15 minutes, barely enough time for me to get my photographic bearings. Hopefully it won’t be another three years before the next twilight launch!

The rest of my pictures are here: Minotaur Missile Launch.

Sunday morning, I emerged from our stateroom on the Great Escape to a spectacularly beautiful day in Southern California. The seas around Catalina were calm, no clouds blocked the sun, the air was warm enough that I didn’t bother with a sweater, and – best of all – I’d slept the whole way out to the island without getting seasick. Thank you, Triptone.

But we didn’t seem to be at our expected destination: Farnsworth Bank, on the far side of Catalina. Instead, we were approaching the familiar white pinnacle near Two Harbors, Bird Rock (not because it looks like a bird, but because it’s covered with birds and bird poo).

This makes us 0-for-3 on Farnsworth attempts, but I couldn’t be too disappointed on such an obviously beautiful morning. The only reason we’d be on the near side of Catalina was if the far side had looked too rough, and I’d rather have a pretty dive by Bird Rock than a yucky one at Farnsworth anyway. It was also going to be my first California dive with my video rig, so I was happy enough to be parked at a less advanced dive site.

To make up for the last-minute switch, Captain Time had anchored on the north side of Bird Rock, a spot he hadn’t dropped divers at before. Jeff and I were some of the first divers into the 65-degree water (toasty heaven!), and dropped down onto boulders in sand at about 70 fsw before heading towards the “wall” that is Bird Rock.

Even better than the warm temperature was the amazing visibility, which seemed to surpass 80 feet in spots. I couldn’t have asked for better video conditions! It also made it easy for Jeff and I to give each other lots of room to work without losing sight of each other. (The more we venture into photo/video, the more I think about signing up for a Solo Diver course.)

The wall on the north side of Bird Rock was simply spectacular. The farther east we ventured, the more sheer the drop-off became. At one point I found myself at a totally vertical wall that was covered with gorgonians, and yet kelp rose around me (presumably anchored at some outcropping deeper than I could see). Straight down was nothing but blue water; all around me were waving sea fans, while above the sun shone through the kelp and scattered in waves on the surface.

Since it was my first time taping California critters, I found myself completely fascinated by every garibaldi and blacksmith, normally near-ignorable fish. I also took advantage of the clear conditions to get as much footage as I could of the sun in the kelp, and the waving sea fans.

We did two dives at Bird Rock, and then moved to one of our favorite sites: Eagle Reef. We’ve always experienced stellar conditions there, and it’s basically a big pile of rocks full of fun crevices to poke around in. Today we parked over another fairly steep wall, and were treated to more amazing visibility and warm temps. The highlights of my video footage here were a few bat ray swim-bys and some fun chasing down a giant kelpfish in the well-lit kelp. (Maybe I’ll figure out how to post some little QuickTime movies here later!)

Captain Tim of the Great Escape posted a message on the local diving bulletin board about how one of the divers on the boat complained bitterly about the change in destination, and was demanding his money back, since he’d dived the frontside of Catalina so many times before. This sort of attitude always baffles Jeff and me. We can dive the same site over and over and find something new every time – and we know no dive destination is ever guaranteed, since the weather and ocean conditions are changeable. I’d rather have a beautiful dive on the frontside of Catalina than be throwing up all the way to a murky Farnsworth. I’d rather dive, period, thna get turned around and head back to harbor! I certainly have no complaints about such a beautiful day, with two fantastic dive sites.

More pics here: Catalina 08/28/2005

Dive logs: #181, #182, and #183.