Finally, a well-timed launch!

2026/03/04. Charlotte meteorologist Brad Panovich posted a note about an early morning SpaceX launch (including the map below which I have modified to show where these photos were made). I'd completely overlooked this one. I set an alarm and headed for the community lot for the 5:58AM liftoff. Launch came 54 minutes ahead of sunrise here, just about right for a decent jellyfish, though clouds and fog dimmed the show (or added character -- you pick). I used the 105mm Sigma F1.4, the R6, a remote release, and selected ISO 6400 and the electronic shutter with the intent to make brief stackable bursts.

All exposures were 1/25s at F1.4 and ISO 6400. The first image is a single frame; the rest are are stacks of a few (~6-10) or several (40) frames, aligned on the rocket with the foreground preserved from one frame in the series. Some are separately processed luminance plus color data. In short, I treated the rocket like a comet. This sequence spans about 90 seconds at the end of powered flight during which I captured 198 frames.

Here's a jellyfish predictor in beta testing from John Krauss Photos. Looks promising. (https://jellyfish.johnkrausphotos.com/)

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