How bright is a shuttle night launch
 

Below is an unretouched shot (reduced in file size considerably)from fifty miles away from the shuttle that just lifted off.
I have seen these all my life and worked three launches at KSC in 1994 but a black sky launch says much about the power of a shuttle going up.
The house in the foreground is my roof and the lens is a noraml perspective or what I saw with my eyes.
It is not meant to be spectacular as it is not but it is about 50 miles with the naked eye's view.

Wulfmann

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y15...ann/launch.jpg

On a good clear night, a night launch can easily be seen on the west coast of Florida for quite a few minutes. I'm just north of Tampa.

Awesome pic man, I'll definitly load up some of mine that I got. I watched it from Daytona Beach. 45-50 miles north of the cape.

Well, that will give us about 500 UFO sighting reports from the less aware folks.

By the way, there's an UFO in your picture, that common-light-effect phenomenon near the top, right in the middle of the dark night background.

Yep Bright I saw it from west coast in Venice Fl when I uded to live there.

Alright my brother, who begged me to be the one to take pictues and promised me he would do a good job, seriously maybe is the worst photographer in all the world. Here's the best I coul find out of what he took. It doesn't give the scene the justice it deserves.

Place: This is from Daytona Beach.
Time: Approx. 8:50pm ET
Facing: South
Distance from launch: 50 miles / 80 kilometers
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9...lesmalluf6.jpg