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.

So far, this week has done nothing but suck.

My friends have taken the bulk of the suckage. A2 has been suffering nasty back and neck pain since what she thought was a “minor” car accident a few weeks ago, and has developed blind spots in both eyes. On Monday, she went for an MRI - I got to sit in the room and watch the big machine, but just looking at someone having to lie perfectly still on their backs for 30 minutes made me super-fidgety. I would probably have to be drugged to keep from squirming around.

Then, keeping with the messed-up-brain theme, I got a very alarming email from my friend Jen (in Boulder) on Tuesday morning. Ironically, it began with “Not to alarm any of you…” and continued to say that Kathy was in the hospital after having suffered a stroke! Mission to not-alarm officially NOT accomplished.

More information came throughout the day, and it looks like Kathy will make a full (and fast) recovery, but I was completely freaked out most of the day just imagining how freaked out she and her husband must be, and wishing she wasn’t 900 miles away where it’s harder to pitch in and help in any concrete ways. I think they’re probably going to be set up just fine for whatever help they need, but it’s hard to be far from your friends when something this sucky happens to them!

While my own personal suckage is not as bad as bleeding or mushed-up brains, there have been several more incidents that by themselves would have ruined my mood for the week, and on top of stressing over the brains of Kathy and Anastasia have me feeling, shall we say, grumpy. And especially foul-mouthed to boot (my dinner conversation the last few days would have earned any movie an R rating for language).

First, there’s been a bit more movement in the thing at work that I’m not allowed to talk about. Nothing particularly bad, or even very much movement, but there went the remaining bits of my concentration yesterday.

And this morning, we woke up to a fascinating phenomenon in our bathroom - super-saturated bathmats. Although there wasn’t a visible leak or puddle anywhere on the surrounding linoleum, or around the sink, bathtub, or toilet, the two thick fluffy mats in our bathroom were completely soaked. Splash-when-you-step-on-them soaked. Spill-an-inch-of-water-all-over-when-you-move-them soaked. The bedroom carpet right next to the bathroom door was also pretty squidgy. We were mystified, but found a clue in the other bathroom (the one where we hang scuba gear to dry, and then hide away all the dirty beach towels from scuba diving). The pile of previously-dry towels lying in the bathtub were completely soaked, but nothing else in there was wet. So, we’re going with backed-up drains. (Whether it was the toilet or the bathtub in our own bathroom is anyone’s guess; sadly, it was probably the toilet, as enough water to overflow the bathtub probably would have left more evidence).

We left a note on the new manager’s door - he’s been here about a week; how’s this for a test of his mettle? I reached my office just in time to miss a phone call from Jeff, who left a message saying that New Guy stopped by before Jeff left. Apparently there was some sort of building-wide plumbing problem last night, and the manager and our regular plumber were working on it all night - something about a root punching through a pipe. I’m not clear on whether our little flood was a symptom of the problem or of the fixing, but supposedly everything is ok now.

Well, we needed to wash that bathroom floor anyway.

There’s also been good news this week - primarily that Kathy’s recovery looks like it’s going to be super-speedy, since she’s already got a lot of her mobility back (whew). Also, the first of three pregnant IPACers popped out a new little person on Monday; I actually got the call while we were getting A2’s MRI, so it cheered her up a bit as well. Results from that MRI are in today, so hopefully there will be more good news there.

If things go well, the rest of the week will be boring. Deadly, horribly dull. So uneventful that I want to stab my eyes out with spoons. Keep your fingers crossed!

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.