SpaceX Falcon 9 B1058.2 makes a beautiful return to Cape Canaveral after successful ANASIS-II mission

My photo coverage of the SpaceX ANASIS-II mission is complete!

Here is a gallery of some of my favorites as long as some backstory on how I captured the landed Falcon 9 in front of the Sun.

I got to thinking, "Hmm, what could I do different for this booster return." I noticed (thanks to Gavin/SpaceXFleet's great coverage of these things on Twitter) that the droneship was scheduled to arrive at Port Canaveral near the time of sunrise. (Here's a link if you'd like to support Gavin here on Patreon as well)

This meant that it would still be out to sea making its journey in at 6:30-6:45 AM. So I thought hmm, 

I've been able to capture lighthouses in front of the setting Sun:

I've been able to capture the Chicago Skyline in front of the setting Sun:

Why not try capturing the rocket in this way?

Me: "Hey Siri, what time is sunrise tomorrow morning?" 

Siri: "Sunrise will be at 6:40 AM"

Me: Awwww yisssss.

Now, to do the maths so that I can make the idea a reality.

I started out by again looking for Gavin's coverage of a previous booster return. I found this image and opened it in one tab on my web browser. 

I opened another tab to Google Maps and made the maps the same/similar sizes so that when I switch between them, I can accurately plot a position for tug Lauren Foss on Google Maps

Next I used the right click "Measure Distance" tool in Google Maps to draw lines between Port Canaveral exit, tug Lauren Foss (tugs the droneship), a position on the shores of Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral, and that line between Port Canaveral and Lauren Foss:

The Sun is ~0.5 degrees wide in the field of view. So, to get the booster to be the same size, I used a little trigonometry to figure out that a ~175 foot (~53m) tall rocket booster on a droneship needs to be ~20,000 - 25,000 feet (~6,800 meters) away from me to be small enough to fit within the disk of the Sun.

Bingo. Referencing the lines I drew two screenshots up, this was going to be perfect. I just needed to work on the fly to move up or down the beach as required to align with the rising Sun/moving droneship.

While the Sun wasn't visible immediately after it rose, a small clearing in the clouds allowed the idea to come to life and show that my calculations were spot on! Should the Sun have been lower to still adjacently touch the horizon, the rocket and it would have been the same size!

Thank you all for supporting me, my work, and this crazy idea I can make photo ideas like this my job. It really is special to me. Sometimes photos are truly just luck or mostly luck, but I hope posts like this are proof there's a lot more to a cool photo in planning, preparation than just luck.

Next up for me as far as photo coverage: Mars 2020 'Perseverance' on July 30th! Followed (I assume) by an early morning SpaceX Starlink mission shortly thereafter. (4AM or earlier, I think I saw?)

Then I've got some fall grad photos to do Aug 5th - 9th back in Indiana and will be headed back down to continue the rocket photo coverage! If NEOWISE is still visible by then, I think it'd be fun to capture it with a few of the Great Lakes Lighthouses while I am up there.

Anyways, thanks again and stay tuned for more fun photos like this in the future! Your support means the world.

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Hi-res downloads/prints to these ANASIS-II photos available here: https://www.tmahlmann.com/photos/Rockets/SpaceX/SpaceX-ANASIS-II/ 

Ponce Inlet: https://www.tmahlmann.com/photos/Places/North-America/United-States/Florida/Lighthouses/Ponce-de-Leon/ 

Chicago skyline: https://www.tmahlmann.com/photos/Places/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/Skyline/