Weather conditions vary. We all know this, however this is a frustrating part of being a sky-watcher.
Many sky-watchers are amateur astronomers and living near the Philadelphia area means partially cloudy skies every time we hear about a meteor shower or other heavenly event. This time we had clear skies (I can't believe it). Tonight we had a great chance to see a rocket launch and yes I could see it as I had a great view from my bedroom window. Now you ask, "what is he talking about, what rocket?"
NASA had a great start in launching it's LADEE (Lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer) The rocket is set to reach the moon in October, and will be used to analyze the Moon's very thin atmosphere. The Rocket launched at night (11:27 PM EDT) and at night of course you could see the trail of the rockets path with just your eyes as an orange trail through the southern sky. (I saw this from Horsham PA) The rocket was visible from Main to South Carolina. The origin of the rocket launch was in Virginia. (NASA's Wallops flight facility).
NASA has been very kind to stream this on USTREAM and relased the video of the launch on YouTube, which I found here for you to see.
Courtesy of NASA!
Story information from NASA website: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/main/index.html#.Uiqrvj8piRM
