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Ah yes, the same tired old spinning - balloons, temperature inversions, swamp gas et al. The more gaseous the smoke screen, the better the camouflage!
From the days of Blue Book till the present, the artful dodgers in the Deep State will continue having the last laugh.

Removing the visible light filter in front of the camera sensor opens up a lot of possiblities. Add to that a light pollution cut filter, and you can photograph the milky way even from highly light polluted city skies

This is taken with a full spectrum A7S, ISO 5000 with a wideband astro filter which filters out orange light. The reddishness of the sky is due to Hydrogen Alpha, the deep red glow of hydrogen in our Universe around 700nm wavelength. Most cameras have a IR cut filter which strongly attenuates post 650nm.

The grass is read because I am parked on the side of a 45mph rural hightway with the parking lights on.



Here is the spectrum for the filter

This is great news and I hope all goes well.

The Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) ambitious Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission is scheduled to launch Sunday (July 14) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 5:21 p.m. EDT (2121 GMT; 2:51 a.m. July 15 local time).
Chandrayaan-2 consists of an orbiter, a lander called Vikram and a rover known as Pragyan. If all goes according to plan, touchdown will occur Sept. 6 on a high plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, about 70 degrees south of the equator.

link : https://www.space.com/india-chandray...h-weekend.html

Thanks for the input sparky@home and thanks also for keeping this thread alive.

For space aficionados the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landings will be covered in a special programme by NASA on July 19th at 1300 Eastern Time ie 2230 hours IST. In 1969 I barely stayed awake to hear this historic event being played live on my father’s Bush Baron transistor radio. Back then it was impossible to imagine, absolutely impossible that days before the 50th anniversary India will launch a probe that will explore the moon. Only a handful of Team BHP members who are old enough will know what I mean.

There is a lot of things to be fixed in India - water, poverty, corruption, bad roads, lousy civic sense, tax evasion etc. But when folks today grumble they forget from what a very long distance this country has trudged uphill.

NASA Television Special Programming
Friday, July 19, 1 p.m. ET – NASA’s Giant Leaps: Past and Future – Celebrating Apollo 50th as we Go Forward to the Moon
On July 19, we will broadcast live from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the historic, newly-restored Apollo mission control room at Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/apollo50th/events.html

BHPian ike and I are going to be there at the gallery at Sriharikota for viewing the launch. The place is about 110 km and 2.5 hours from where we stay. Hopefully, we'll strike this off our bucket list!

Oh My God!!! Please share a narration of what it is like after you're back. Some guys have all the luck :-)

That would be quite a spectacle, and you would be lucky to watch it. As Mr.Narayan has said, we would be happy to hear about it. All the best.

MeToo going. I am travelling from Bangalore - Chennai - Sriharikota. We too have taken the gallery pass. We can catch up there. What time you are planning to be there?

I got to know of the pass too late. I am still planning to drive there and watch it from my car. Please suggest a good vantage point from the road or main land that is safe to stop at as well as safe from thugs etc.

This video is awesome.

NASA has made a video (360° Video) of more than 4000 exoplanets known to exist outside our solar system, basically all that has been discovered since 1991.

Hope you enjoy it !!!

https://youtu.be/SjkWi9pf0dM

People that visited the gallery, please post pics. I was about 6km from the launchpad and could see the lights but sadly the launch did not happen.

I am not sure if this fits in here but I felt that for those of us who are concerned about the continued safe passage of our "fragile blue planet", this would be an interesting......eye-opener(??). The following link is a take it or leave it choice for members who have a larger interest in the world around us. If you find it is inappropriate, mods, please delete it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pr-C4byeNk

Unfortunate as it was, it is good that they found the snag before the launch. Would have been catastrophic otherwise.

If I'm fortunate enough to be able to attend the rescheduled launch, I'd rather view it from one of the view points that have been set up on the road from Sullurpet to Sriharikota. The view points also offer a clear line of sight. The "gallery" is a concrete structure set up outside the perimeter wall of the launch station and I don't think there would be a big difference between the gallery and the view points. The view points should be safe, there were cops patrolling the road the other day, but it is quite secluded with not many people around.

For those who couldn't register, there was a spot registration counter that was set up. But we were allowed inside only after producing the relevant registration papers (these were verified twice well before we reached the premises of the gallery) so not very sure if there would be complications for entry if you turn up without registering.

We have reached launch gallery around 10.00 p.m. on 14th July. The process of parking, ticket verification, security-check were well organised and no chaos. They also had spot registration counters for people who missed booking online.

From parking to gallery it is around 500 meters walk. But for elderly, differently abled and families with babies they had vehicle arrangements to drop very close to the gallery.

Plenty of snack counters and restrooms were available. Big screens were setup to show videos and the live countdown progress. There was also a small exhibit area setup beneath the gallery having scale models and information. This was good for keeping kids engaged.

The view was much better than what I had expected. But I haven't been to the other view points outside. So can't compare.

They had some event management folks to keep the crowd engaged and bring in some josh. But in my opinion they did a dull job.

When the countdown has reached 1 hour there was a huge excitement in the crowd. All were bit disappointed when the launch was aborted. But very happy that we had all the systems in place to avoid any mishaps.

Overall it was a smooth and good experience. Hoping to visit again when the launch is planned.

Thanks for sharing this info. I reached at 12:00am was not allowed beyond the first police check point that was about 5km from the launchpad, as I didn't have a vehicle pass. I noticed vehicles ahead of me did not stop but I did and was turned back. He told me cannot buy tickets there. Very upset to learn now that it was actually being permitted. Were you able to click pics of the actual launch rocket?