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Filming rocket launches

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Normally I post things unrelated to space in my evening pauses, but this video describing the history of the development of the cameras that film rocket launches is too good to not post. Besides, every rocket launch is entertaining to watch, even those that fail.

Hat tip Kevin Franke.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

8 comments

8 comments

  • MarcusZ1967
    September 13, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    Curious Droid is a GREAT researcher…. been a fan and subscriber of his for a many years….

    Another great one here….

    https://youtu.be/ovD0aLdRUs0

  • Phill O
    September 13, 2018 at 7:13 pm

    Nice video!

  • Jason Hillyer
    September 13, 2018 at 7:57 pm

    Saw this years ago, great video with lot’s of information. I also have been Subscribed to Curious Droid for quite a while.

  • Chris
    September 13, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    Very cool video
    Directly after college I worked for Contraves in Pittsburgh for almost ten years.
    The engineering staff was second to none. It was engineering nirvana for a kid just out of school.

  • wayne
    September 15, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    Kevin–
    great selection!

    related:
    there exists a great documentary on the film unit that photographed all the nuclear bomb tests…. but I can’t readily locate it.
    The Lookout Mountain film lab people. Lengthy, with interviews from alumni and excellent archival footage.

  • wayne
    September 15, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    here we go….
    (–not sure if this complete)

    “Hollywood’s Top Secret Film Studio”
    https://youtu.be/OWTNxaEYNUM
    51:45

  • pzatchok
    September 15, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    A while ago I was looking for telescope mounts and actually found a bunch of these telescope camera mounts for sale at close to scrap prices.

    They were all from the Nevada test range I believe, WSMR, and went on sale when they upgraded about 10 years or so ago.

    Cameras not included. But the optics were.

  • wayne
    September 15, 2018 at 6:16 pm

    pzatchok-
    great story!

    pivoting back quite a bit further:
    after the rocket launch is filmed….
    “Baker Nunn Satellite Tracking Cameras”
    http://bollerandchivens.com/?p=561

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