Topic: Santiago Peak - May 5th (this Saturday)

[JFanaselle]

Ok, I know this is a short notice, but I've decided to take a run up to Santiago Peak this coming Saturday morning, May 5th (yes, that is less than 48 hours from now). I wanted to open it up to anyone else that would like to tag along. But.... here's the catch.... I am going SUPER early. The purpose of the trip is to view the Atlas V rocket launch that is supposed to be taking place from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The launch window opens at 4:05 am and closes around 6:00 am.

Some things to note:

*It will be extremely early. Please be prepared and well rested. The roads can be sketchy in the day with plenty of rest. They can be even worse at night with little rest.

*It is possible that the rocket launch could be delayed (until another day). They will technically have several launch windows between the 5th and June 1st, and they can cancel or delay it for many reasons (technical, security, weather-related, etc.). However, this is a pretty big mission (they're taking a new exploratory craft to Mars), and I understand there is a big "launch party" taking place in Lompoc (near the base). My guess is that they'll try REALLY hard to launch it during that party, so that everyone who worked on the project can see the fruits of their labor

*My schedule will be tight. I have to be in Los Alamitos at 8:00 am for a Cal OES function that I am participating in. So, if the rocket doesn't launch by 6:00 am, I'm leaving either way. I'll probably depart my house somewhere around 1:30 am, in case I run into any issues getting up there. Google says it's about a 1 hour and 45 minute drive up the mountain from my house in Murrieta, but I expect that it will be more like an hour and 20 minutes. I'll be taking Indian Truck Trail up the east face of the mountain to North Main Divide Truck Trail. If anyone else wants to come, we can plan to meet at the Vons shopping center off of Indian Truck Trail and I-15.

*I'm not sure how "impressive" the launch will be from the peak, but the views in general are spectacular, especially at night. It is high enough that is usually above the fog layer, but that can hinder your view of the city lights. The current forecast is for high pressure and warm temperatures over the weekend, so I'm hopeful there will be no fog.

If anyone is interested in tagging along, let me know and we'll work out the logistics. My objective is to photograph the launch using a long exposure, so I'll need lighting to be limited during the launch itself. That said, this could be a fun, short drive up the mountain to enjoy a beautiful view!

[pyrofox79]

I'm interested. I dont have much else going on.

[EJsarus]

Never been up there but is it doable in a stock 1st gen? if so, i might be of company.

[beedee]

Never been up there but is it doable in a stock 1st gen? if so, i might be of company.

Yes it is.

[JFanaselle]

Well, here's the update: It looks like our disaster drill is being moved from an 0800 start time to 0700. This will significantly impact my ability to get down off the mountain and down to Los Alamitos in time.

So, it looks like this won't happen after all. That said, I still really like the idea of a night run up to the peak one evening. We could start earlier and (maybe like 7:00 pm or something) and have more time to enjoy ourselves. The gates for the roads get locked as soon as fire season gets bad, so I'll plan something soon. Maybe toward the end of May or beginning of June. I'll start a separate thread when the time comes.

As far as the rocket launch, I'll be trying to find a good viewing/photography spot along the coast somewhere down in LA. I'm thinking the Palos Verdes Estates Shoreline Preserve in Rancho Palos Verdes, or maybe somewhere along Dockweiler State Beach. Hopefully the fog will cooperate and stay well offshore.

[ultrapc40]

Bummer. I do want to run up there and let this be my kids first Offroad trip

[zaphos]

But...but...but you got us all excited and then mercilessly crushed our dreams like a bug on a windshield.   

I am the only network wonk in our IT dept so I know your "24x7xrest of your natural born life" on-call pain.

This looks SERIOUSLY cool. Should scare the jiblets out of my girls.  Cassidy already wants to be an Astronaut.

JFanaselle, would you be cool with us trying to go anyway?

Anyone else able to jump in and lead? I just don't know the area and don't really have any other leads under my belt.

https://www.space.com/40441-insight-mars-lander-launch-viewing-guide.html

Kind of a long shot but worth a try.

Is this the trail?...

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/maple-spring-truck-trail


./Mark

[steve c]

Where do you live, Mark?
East of the mountains, 15 side, Indian Truck Trail or the entrance to North Main Divide off the Ortega is the way to go.
South OC, entrance to North Main Divide from the Ortega
North OC, entrance to Maple Springs Road off of Santiago Canyon Road to Silverado Canyon Rd. 

This site will give you some cool info about the gates.
 https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/cleveland/alerts-notices/?cid=stelprdb5340229

[zaphos]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for info.

No Worries, looking at a map, this is still pretty far out from the launch. If others aren't going, I think we are just going to road trip it and get the full experience from St. Mary's right there next to Vandenberg...

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/timeline/launch/watch-in-person/

./Mark

[JFanaselle]

I certainly don't mind if someone else takes this over and leads a group up the mountain. I agree that it's pretty far from the launch. From a photography perspective, it would be a cool long exposure (2 or 3 minutes) of the rocket traveling over Southern California - it's supposed to travel toward the southwest after launch, so it'll move across the sky from right to left. But yes, you won't get the "full experience" of the launch from that far away. It'll look like a bright airplane moving across the sky really far away.

I'd like to get over to Lompoc and watch it from much closer (like St. Mary's, or the airport), but I won't be able to make it from there back to Los Alamitos by 7:00 am. So I'm stuck trying to watch it from somewhere near LA. Hopefully I can get a cool enough shot from the coastline.

I'm definitely going to have to make a trip up to the base one day and watch one up close.

Zaphos - just be prepared to do something else with your day (maybe Solvang or something?), as these launches get scrubbed or delayed A LOT. If there is any kind of disturbance in the upper atmosphere, or any kind of technical concern, they'll delay the launch and miss their 2 hour launch window for the day. Then they'll try again the next day, and so on. They have a launch window of 1 month. It would suck to drive all the way up there and have it be delayed at the last minute.

[RikRong]

Profile of the launch and its payload.


United Launch Alliance:  they will run a live feed of the launch, you can keep track of any delays or can'x. I like this feed because it provides live radio calls from various launch participants.
https://www.youtube.com/user/UnitedLaunchAlliance

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[JFanaselle]

Thanks for video and links Rick. It was pretty cool to watch, but it was a little underwhelming from my vantage point in Rancho Palos Verdes. It looked like a red road flare moving up through the sky at a consistent speed. Although it did look pretty cool, it wasn't nearly as impressive as it would have been had I been able to get much closer to the launch.

My photography skills also aren't quite sharpened for this sort of thing yet, but I learned a lot today. I was battling some tough shooting conditions for the type of photo I was trying to get - a hazy mid-level atmosphere combined with a bright moonlit sky (which illuminated the haze and contributed to the lack of sharpness in the photo). I also didn't realize just how far away it was going to appear, and I used waaaaaay too wide of a lens. The wideness did help when I realized I wasn't pointed at the precise correct launch spot, but overall it would have been much better if I used a tighter lens and had a clearer sky to work with. I did learn a lot for the next time

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[fourxfunk]

Hey J, did you happen to catch the 12/22 Falcon 9 launch? That one was wild!

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[zaphos]

Well we ended up at St. Marys but it was fogged in so we got the rumble but couldn’t really see it. Fortunately they had it on a big screen and we watched that.

Now we are bumming around Santa Maria and we’ll hit the pismo dunes tomorrow before heading back. I KNEW i should have packed a land anchor but I’m sure there will be plenty of people around and I will be taking it easy. No huckfest for Mark .



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[JFanaselle]

Hey J, did you happen to catch the 12/22 Falcon 9 launch? That one was wild!

I did not, but I saw some video and it looked pretty cool. There's supposed to be another Delta IV Heavy launch on September 26th of this year. Those ones are usually pretty impressive. They haven't announced a time yet, so let's hope it's an evening or morning launch. That's actually my wedding anniversary... I wonder if I can talk the Mrs. into an anniversary trip to Santa Barbara or something?  The bummer is that it's a reconnaissance satellite launch (NROL-71), and they usually don't release many details about those (sometimes they don't even release the launch times).

Well we ended up at St. Marys but it was fogged in so we got the rumble but couldn’t really see it. Fortunately they had it on a big screen and we watched that.

Now we are bumming around Santa Maria and we’ll hit the pismo dunes tomorrow before heading back. I KNEW i should have packed a land anchor but I’m sure there will be plenty of people around and I will be taking it easy. No huckfest for Mark .

That's a bummer that you didn't get to see it, but I'll bet it was still pretty cool to hear it. That's cool that you still got to make a good trip out of the experience, too.