rocket launch

So there I sat in front of the television watching the launch of the Mars rover with only 1 minute and 12 seconds to go.    The clarity of the picture was exceptional.   The moiré pattern is from my camera and not the television.    The camera must have a polarizer somewhere which is creating this pattern.   I have cable television and I was watching the launch from the NASA channel.   The launch was spectacular.   I watched the rocket go up until the external supplementary rockets fell away.   Then I decided to go outside to see what I could see.   From the front porch I could see the smoke trail from the rocket.

As I looked at the wavy rocket trail I chuckled and thought "who is steering this thing".    It is weaving all over the place.   But actually it is the winds moving the smoke trail around.   I waited too long before going outside to look at it.   Normally it is nice and straight.  

I didn't hear the actual rocket roar (which can be heard here in Orlando) because as I watched the launch on television, the roar of the rocket engines from the television speakers was so loud that it would have drowned out the actual roar from the engines outside.

Hey, would you like to see a picture of my nephew?

Yeah, he had a job putting the tiles onto the space shuttles.   Sounds like a really neat job.   And it is also neat to be a part of history.   Have a fantastic day and one more left-over turkey sandwich for lunch.    Lew