posted 06-08-2005 06:11 PM               

Which Apollo mission it was remains unclear; my father took that info to his grave many years ago.

But I'm certain I can ID the liftoff if I saw footage of it taken from our perspective, several miles west of the pad. (to our eyes the rocket was a tiny, white stick on the horizon)

The rocket was totally obscured by its exhaust smoke for a few moments as it first got going, then soon after it got going it vanished behind some clouds as it arched over into orbital trajectory, giving it the appearance of totally stopping and vanishing in the sky.

Lots of cloudy days in Florida, and clouds are often highly localized -- may have been perfectly clear above the launch site, but clouded between us and the site. Worse; could be nearly identical cloud conditions for several Apollo launches!

I'd love to see photos -- or score a real home run and see home movies taken from my POV along the highway miles west of the cape.

It would help solve a lifelong mystery.

Any info on where to luck into somebody's home movies of this nature?

Any help would be appreciated.

posted 06-09-2005 11:49 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Tom:
John:
First of all, are you sure that you were viewing WEST of the launch pad?

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Yes, I've always wondered about that sticky point. We came from Tampa, FL, which is mostly due West of the cape. But you know, looking at maps now I realize most highways probably did not go cleanly East/West from Tampa. We may very well have wound our way into southerly highway to get into position. So I can't readily explain my memory of the huge exhaust cloud obscuring the rocket. It may have only partly obscured it.

But I'm sure about the rocket arching away from us -- East -- and vanishing behind clouds just as it arched over into orbital trajectory. After intermittently appearing and re-appearing between clouds, it just seemed to suddenly vanish.

I also remember it being very hot and muggy, despite our having left early in the morning. I think the launch may have been around the late morning hour.

I seem to recall lots of people on the highway doing just what we were doing; pulling over to get a look.

My older brothers seem to think it was either Apollo 8 or 11.

Thanks for the input.

posted 06-09-2005 11:54 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by heng44:
Mark Gray's DVD set on the Saturn-5 contains all launches from different angles...

Ed

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Yes, I have two of those great DVD sets (Apollo 11 and 16), but the footage contained in those archives were taken from cameras too close to the pad to replicate my POV.

But I did see I think it was NBC's replay of their coverage of Apollo 11, and the sporadic clouds were in their footage -- still not my POV, but pretty encouraging. Again, we were distant; there could have been an entire different set of clouds between us and the cameras at the cape. That is very typical for Florida.

thanks...

posted 06-09-2005 11:55 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by dtemple:
Hope this is of some help.
Apollo 8, 12-21-68, 7:51 am
Apollo 9, 3-3-69, 11:00 am
Apollo 10, 5-18-69, 11:49 am
Apollo 11, 7-16-69, 9:32 am
Apollo 13, 4-11-70, 2:13 pm
Apollo 14, 1-31-71, 4:03 pm
Apollo 15, 7-26-71, 9:34 am
Apollo 16, 4-16-72, 12:54 pm

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Thanks!