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Ghost boat ("Cuki") at night.

In the continuing saga of the "Cuki," the 45-foot sailboat washed ashore in Melbourne Beach, Florida, I present this image from Wednesday evening.

Unhappily, the boat has become a target for looters. When I arrived, Ian Gronsky had chased off a guy and his teenage son who were trying to make off with the canopy, and it seems several things (including the mannequins!!) are missing.

Please note that because it is still sea turtle nesting season, lights are prohibited on beaches until after October 31. I planned to shoot in the dark, but Ian called the police to deal with the looters, and the police used big flashlights to check out the scene. And, the top of the mast isn't discolored, but rather it is orange from the cast of the streetlights from the road/parking lot behind me, and the mast is just tall enough to reflect the light that shines over the berm that separates the beach from the road. (Some of the lines are reflecting it as well.)

Details:
This image is a merge of 78 30-second exposures (ISO3200, f8) to show the movement of the stars, and then I had one frame from when I was setting up and framing the shot that was shot at ISO800 and f5.6 for 54-seconds that captured the officer's flashlight sweeping over the boat. Initial edits were done in Lightroom, and the stacking was done in Photoshop.

(Photo by Michael Seeley)

Tags:   Beach Cuki Florida Ghost boat HurricaneIrma Irma Melbourne Melbourne Beach Michael Seeley Mike Seeley Sailboat Star Stacking Star Trails

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Wow.

Edit: Now that I'm at my computer, and the adrenaline has calmed (just a bit), I can properly describe this shot: this is a 277-second exposure of the #CRS15 #Faalcon9 rocket launched by #SpaceX at 5:42am this (Friday) morning. The plume was illuminated by the rising sun, and it was just amazing.

Details: ISO100, 277-seconds, f18 shot with a Canon​ 5D4 and a Rokinon 14mm lens.

(Field edit from the roof of the VAB, pic: me We Report Space​)

Tags:   CRS15 Dragon Elon Musk Falcon9 ISSCargo International Space Station KSC Kennedy Space Center Mike Seeley NASA Rocket Rocket Launch SpaceX WeReportSpace

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A #SpaceX #Falcon9 rocket meets the 98.9% illuminated Moon as it carries the Intelsat G-33/G-34 payload to orbit.

What a show this was. Well done,
@elonmusk
& team!

Tags:   Canon CanonR5 FullMoon G33 G34 Galaxy InstelSat LunarTransit MichaelSeeley Moon R5 RocketLaunch Titusville elonmusk falcon9 mikeseeley spacex

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For the first time since 2019, SpaceX launched their heavy-lift rocket, the Falcon Heavy, Tuesday, November 1, 2022, at 9:41 am (EDT), sending the USSF-44 payload to orbit. The rocket launched from LC-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Approximately 8-minutes after launch, two of the three cores returned to Landing Zones 1 and 2 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This was the view captured with a camera on a sound-trigger, set there the day before.

Tags:   Booster Canon ElonMuskl FalconHeavy LZ1 LZ2 Landing LandingZone1 MichaelSeeley USSF44 mikeseeley rocket spacex

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Photo available here:
www.photosofstuff.xyz/Falcon-Heavy/

In a reflection of how mind-bogglingly spectacular the #SpaceX #FalconHeavy launch was, my initial photo captions were pretty much limited to "Wow" and "Just, wow." This image, in particular, warranted a bit of an explanation, and some shout-outs, and I'm just now getting around to it.

Ever since I saw Bill Ingalls' pad streak shot of the Expedition 50 Soyuz launch (here: flic.kr/p/PrS16m ), I've been obsessed with pad streaks, and the moment I saw Bill's shot, I knew I wanted to try it on a multi-core rocket. Without traveling to Kazakhstan, that would limit my possible subjects to the Delta IV Heavy or the Falcon Heavy.

I've said before that there are few genuinely original shots in spaceflight photography, and it's true here. With this shot, I follow in the footsteps of not only Bill, but also Alan Walters (whose similar shot from Falcon Heavy is amazing, and if you don't believe me, ask Elon Musk himself), Bill Jelen, Ben Cooper and others.

So, here is my re-processed pad streak, taken with a camera placed along the crawlerway (near the SpaceX hangar) that was driven by a sound-activated trigger.

The final edits involve more detail and more contrast to bring out detail in the colossal exhaust plume created by the beast of a rocket. Specifically, the water suppression system and the huge clamps that hold the rocket to the pad are all more visible (along with some other hardware and the RSS) in this version.


Details: ISO100, f22, 20-second exposure, seen through a 10-stop Neutral Density filter.

TL;DR: Wow. Just, wow.

Tags:   Elon Musk Falcon 9 Falcon Heavy Kennedy Space Center Mike Seeley Rocket Rocket Launch SpaceX WeReportSpace

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