Starship Asterisk*

Patrick Reed wrote:Whereas I believe that the Blue Plume is what is stated, There are questions of scale and vector. The scale of the visible missile clearly shows a misconnect in the photograph, unless the photographer is asking me to believe that the Trident is larger than one of the Struts on a tower of the GG Bridge. As to vector, if I am to believe that the missile is where it is represented would indicate that it has been fired from somewhere between Angel Island and Tiburon, which I cannot but believe is rather unlikely. I am not sure, but I do not think that the waters of Richardson Bay are anywhere deep enough for a Trident Submarine to be at launch depth. There is one more (still unplausible,) explanation, namely a misfire at an inopportune moment at Mare Island. I would bet that though the photograph of the missile is a great catch where and whenever it occurred, it was not in the same frame as the beautiful exposure of the Golden Gate Bride and adjacent headlands....PHOTOSHOP!

Patrick Reed wrote:PHOTOSHOP!

Patrick Reed wrote:Whereas I believe that the Blue Plume is what is stated, There are questions of scale and vector. The scale of the visible missile clearly shows a misconnect in the photograph, unless the photographer is asking me to believe that the Trident is larger than one of the Struts on a tower of the GG Bridge. As to vector, if I am to believe that the missile is where it is represented would indicate that it has been fired from somewhere between Angel Island and Tiburon, which I cannot but believe is rather unlikely. I am not sure, but I do not think that the waters of Richardson Bay are anywhere deep enough for a Trident Submarine to be at launch depth. There is one more (still unplausible,) explanation, namely a misfire at an inopportune moment at Mare Island. I would bet that though the photograph of the missile is a great catch where and whenever it occurred, it was not in the same frame as the beautiful exposure of the Golden Gate Bride and adjacent headlands....PHOTOSHOP!

geckzilla wrote:

howdydoody wrote:There's another photo from a different photographer that was with this guy and hia photo shows the missile smaller and farther away. Plus the other photo does not have all the color saturation added like this photo. You should ask for the RAW image NEF file.

You should keep in mind the evolving and expanding nature of the cloud produced by the rocket. At some earlier point in time it was smaller. Because you did not add any links to the pictures you were talking about, I took a look at the Facebook page linked to in the APOD description and found a picture Abe took of the RAW image in the preview screen on his camera.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

Here is another link to the image that will probably work even if one is not logged into Facebook:
https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... 7777_o.jpg

(If it still doesn't work for someone, I'll attach the image to a post.)

howdydoody wrote:There's another photo from a different photographer that was with this guy and hia photo shows the missile smaller and farther away. Plus the other photo does not have all the color saturation added like this photo. You should ask for the RAW image NEF file.

Boomer12k wrote:Ok....if this was launched from a submarine...why does it look like it came from the landward side of the picture?
Unless it is waaaaay to the South, and shot from Monterrey Bay, or off of Los Angeles, or San Diego...

:---[===] *

Medik 1-7 wrote:Sorry, as a long retired military veteran I take exception to the labeling the missile as a "Trident II D5 nuclear missile" for two reasons: A. the caption stated it was "unarmed" indicating that none of the potentially 14 thermonuclear MIRVs were on board and B. it's a 3 stage solid-fuel, guided missile with no nuclear fuel, therefore it's not a "nuclear missile".

The used label is misleading and typical of writers that don't really do their homework.

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:After yesterday's teaser I thought it was going to be this.

Space_center.jpeg

Luckily he survived!

Boomer12k wrote:Ok....if this was launched from a submarine...why does it look like it came from the landward side of the picture?
Unless it is waaaaay to the South, and shot from Monterrey Bay, or off of Los Angeles, or San Diego...

:---[===] *

HellCat wrote:
Why does it appear that the image seems abnormally large? The apparent image of the rocket itself seems to be leading the plume. But at the likely distance from the rocket, it shouldn't be nearly that large.

HellCat wrote:No chance there was some photo manipulation here?

heehaw wrote:Funny there was a photographer poised so ideally, at just the right time, on Veterans day, as military budgets are under debate in congress....