Vandenberg AFB rocket launch tonight

[Morris Jones]

Vandenberg Air Force Base will be launching a Delta II rocket tonight 
carrying the COSMO-SkyMed 3 earth observation satellite.

The Delta II rockets climb fairly slowly and fly towards the south, so 
if the sky is clear and the launch goes well, we could have quite a show 
in L.A. county.

Launch time is tonight at 7:28:21 p.m. with a launch window of 1 second 
(!).  So either it goes or it doesn't.

I would watch for the next ten or fifteen minutes after launch time, 
looking more or less to the south west.  Sunset is at about 6:07 p.m., 
so it's possible that the rocket will not be visible until it climbs out 
of earth's shadow into the sunlight.  Or it may show a fairly bright 
exhaust plume during the ascent.

It sounds to me like a potentially good show, worth looking for.

Cheers,
Mojo
-- 
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la