SpaceX Rocket Launch!

Though it looks like a planetary nebula, the blue and orange smoke-looking stuff actually came from first and second stage separation, according to APOD on October 12, 2018

I went to Vandenberg Airforce Base in Lompoc, California this evening to witness my first rocket launch (that I could actually see--the other one I went to was completely obscured by fog). A friend of mine from UC Santa Barbara's student paper "The Line" interviewed me for a really nice video she created:

Also, here were my initial reflections that I wrote afterwards:

Unbelievable. Truly unlike anything I've ever experienced in my life--I imagine it felt like someone from 150 years ago might feel if they were to suddenly encounter a modern airplane or smartphone. By far the most impressive and unexpected part was when a cloud spontaneously appeared around the rocket and, like a crystal seed, began to grow outwards, undulating, changing form and color, expanding, until it became an astonishingly beautiful portal into another dimension so high up in the sky. The rockets' fire was almost painful to the eye, like looking directly at the sun. The entire time I felt an odd but very real fear--something about the strangeness and power of it. Unexpected things kept happening. After a few minutes the first stage separated and then there were multiple objects going in different directions to look at along with the cloud portal. Though on the way up the sounds were low grumbles, out of nowhere about ten minutes in were loud gunshots--a triple sonic boom--that sent me to the ground. It was also hard to comprehend the physical perspective of the event, how far everything was and what direction each part was traveling in. Finally, amazingly, I watched as the second stage engine that was attached to the satellite being deposited into Low Earth Orbit shut off and all that was left was a tiny point of light--the satellite--moving swiftly and silently through space.

If you'd like to watch video of the launch and learn about the mission, check out: https://www.spacex.com/webcast

This is a composite of two pictures taken about 8 minutes apart, but viewed from the same location! The rocket taking off is on the right and the rocket landing is on the left.