If you’re anyone that follows Space-X or NASA type news, I’m sure you saw that amazing sight that was the west coast launch of the Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket. The reason why this one was of particular interest is because it was a twilight launch. Now when that happens, at least on the west coast, when the rocket reaches a certain altitude, we get ana amazing show of light through the smoke plume generated by the first and second stages of the rocket.

This actually happened last Christmas, but I was in Phoenix at the time on a family vacation and missed it. They actually said that you could see it from Phoenix, but by the time I made it outside, I couldn’t see anything. Twitter and Instagram was light up by everyone capturing the event, even some people wondering if it was an alien invasion! It’s safe to say that I was feeling a particular case of FOMO from that launch.

So when I received a launch update mentioning that this was a twilight launch again, I was super pumped to try and see if I could get an image of it. And I was not disappointed. I did however, over do it a little bit with my ISO on the camera. I wanted to get the sharpest image possible so I pushed it all the way to 20,000! 😱 Yeah to say I had to add some noise reduction is an understatement. But I’m still very happy with what I was able to capture. Next time I think I’ll try to setup a proper time-lapse with a tripod, and some faster/sharper glass to help compensate.

Here is a replay of the Youtube Live Stream of the Launch, followed by a few of the stills I was able to get from my front lawn.

Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will return to land at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Air Force Base. This is SpaceX’s first attempt at a land landing on the West Coast. LZ-4 is built on the former site of Space Launch Complex 4W, from which Titan rockets were previously launched.