"No flamingos in sight, but a rocket"

Rags is a neighbourhood friend, long-time MNS member and another of the Society's band of excellent photographers.

Here is his account of the happenings of Oc 12th.

Photo by Raghavan aka Rags

When Venky and Prabhu asked me to join them today for a drive up to Sriharikota to watch flamingos ( the word was out that the birds were seen in hundreds) and a rocket launch from the SHAR center, I went along without knowing what to expect.

We reached SHAR road by about 7.30 am and drove along trying to spot birds one either side. When we reached the Wildlife Warden's office, we were stopped at a heavily armed Police and Army barricade. As the rocket launch was scheduled for 1100 hrs, we were not permitted to drive further but were advised by the men in uniform to turn South and drive along the brush jungle to spot birds. We could only see Egrets, Painted storks, some ground roosting Pelicans and some bush birds like pipits, finch larks, black winged kites and so on.

There was little water in the lagoons and the mud flats were turning into a mirage with all the heat shimmer in the distance. Disappointed by the complete lack of flamingos, we turned back North and drove up to the derelict watch tower to hang around and watch the rocket launch at the least. We were probably 10 kms away from the launch pad, which was obscured by the distant tree line to the East and we waited with baited breath for the launch to take place, a first time experience for me.

At 1058 hrs, there seemed to be an eerie silence - as though the wind had stopped blowing - and at 1100 hrs on the dot, we heard a distant siren wailing and then blast off! It was a flaming streak that took off from the distance - sounding perhaps as loud as a jet engine initially - and barely a few seconds into lift off, I experienced a ear shattering BRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMPP and the ground around my feet shook - I was hearing the sonic boom as the rocket broke the sound barrier! Another few seconds and there was only a rapidly dissipating vapour trail left behind by the rocket.

The attached picture is already magnified about 100%, even though I used my 300mm/f4 on a Nikon D90 body. If you enlarge the picture more, you can see a distinct 'ring' of condensation just below the nose. Prabhu, being the tech savvy man, explained the 'ring' phenomenon. As the rocket slices through the air, the velocity at the nose is so great that a low pressure or vacuum forms just below the nose. The water vapour 'ring' settles within this low pressure zone and travels with the rocket till it gets out of Earth's atmosphere. Quite an experience from someone who only went looking for flamingos!

Rags

Check out Rags' pictures at  Camerags

The rocket was ISRO's PSLV series, and it put a weather satellite up in orbit.

Can we now hope for better weather forecasting?