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How To View the Antares Launch
An anonymous reader points out NASA's info page on the Anatares rocket launch happening later today. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport are set to support the launch of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket at 6:45 p.m. EDT, October 27. The Antares rocket will carry Orbital's Cygnus cargo spacecraft, loaded with some 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments, to the International Space Station. The launch may be visible, weather permitting, to residents throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions of the United States. Here's a visibility map of launch. Public viewing of the launch will be available at the NASA Visitor Center at Wallops and at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge/Assateague Island National Seashore. Here's more information about the Visitors Center, including directions, and information on viewing sites recommended by the Eastern Shore of Virginia Tourism Commission. Live coverage of the mission is scheduled to begin at noon on the Wallops Ustream site."
These launches aren't that uncommon, but they're visible from a lot of highly-populated areas, and they're bright enough to see even if you've got a lot of light pollution. If you have a good view of the horizon in the proper direction, check it out.
"...loaded with some 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments..."
It feels like an organisation such as NASA, which is hopefully respected for its scientific contributions across the world, could set an example by moving towards the metric system in its press releases. This would emphasise the importance the metric system (and the complete intolerance of imperial measurements) in science and allow the move to the metric system to be driven by the scientists (i.e. those in society that lay people respect as being intelligent).
If the battle between metric vs imperial is just fought over what people prefer in the present, then nothing will change and a backward and overly complixated system for measuring everything will remain.
If you are ever out in Maryland, these launches are worth visiting. Here is a hint: Do not go to Chincoteague Island. It is crowded and it is not all that close. You can get twice as close and less crowded by driving around on some back country roads. Google maps/earth is your friend. From our vantage point we could see the rocket before launch. At launch it was blinding. It lit up the entire landscape and we could feel the thunder thumping our chests. 100% worth it.
If you're looking south/southwest, it should be no problem. I'll be at Eagle Rock Reservation in NJ, which faces New York City, but I can face south enough to catch a bit of it. The problem is I get out of work at 6:15pm, and can't get to any good vantage spots other than Eagle Rock by 6:45. Hoping for the best....
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Looking at the map, it seems like the direction to look from Connecticut will be south/southeast (but mostly south). It first has to rise above the Earth's curvature far enough to be visible from CT, and by that time it's already quite far out to sea to the east. Looks like a similar situation in NJ - it's not going to appear to the southwest.