I went out into the desert last week and emplaced two OM-2Ns for the following
morning's launch. I really must write myself a checklist - I was closing the
rent car trunk when I remembered that I hadn't loaded the IR camera. So, I had
to undo everything to remove one camera from the box, stuff the camera into a
changing bag and load it with HIE, remount the camera, reconnect the remote
wiring, test the shutter, bag the box, and try again to leave. I got as far as
Range Road 10 when I remembered I hadn't reset that camera to AUTO after
loading the film in the changing bag at MANUAL (to prevent shutter lock-up).
Back again.
I alway secure the box and tripod to an optics pole at (a wooden telephone
pole) with armourer's tape to prevent anyone from driving a truck over my
camera setup in the dark. The Met office had sent three meteorologists to the
pre-mission brief earlier in the day. They emphatically forecast 5% chance of
thunderstorms overnight. An hour and a half after leaving the site we drove
into Las Cruces and were greeted by a wall cloud, mammatus clouds,
cloud-to-cloud and cloud to ground lightning - sure looked like a thunderstorm
to me. It stormed all night - with my cameras carefully secured to the tallest
thing for five miles in any direction! And then, driving across San Augustine
Pass at 0315 the next morning we negotiated a small blizzard.
The mission went very well and my colleague did a great job squeezing off 16
frames as the missiles climbed into the cloud deck. We had just enough early
morning sun break through a few holes to make a fairly dramatic sequence of
images. And the cameras are none the worse for a night in the storm under
three garbage bags.
I've spent the evening trying to scan the Fuji Press 400 negatives but
grain-aliasing has defeated me. I'm giving up and taking the negs to a pro lab
tomorrow. The HIE negs will get processed Friday.
Gary Edwards
Gary Edwards
www.peopleplacesflight.com
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