On the evening of 2010 November 5, a Delta II rocket lifted off from Vandenberg AFB, California and placed Italy's COSMO-SkyMed-4 radar Earth-imaging satellite into orbit. The Webmaster took the following image of the event from the mountains north of Santa Barbara.

This time exposure records the arc from the Delta rocket as it carried COSMO-4 into orbit. The short streaks in the sky are star trails caused by the Earth's rotation. Oil platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel appear as white spots in the lower left. The bright white dash near the oil platforms was caused by a moving ship. The Webmaster took the image using a Nikon D-70 digital SLR and 18-70mm lens. The exposure was 238.5 seconds at f/5.6 with long exposure noise reduction enabled.

Copyright © 2012, Brian Webb. All rights reserved.