Clear Night Launch

STS-126 Endeavour, launched 7:55pm November 14, 2008

From the NASA causeway, using a 24mm lens at f22 with a 0.9 ND filter (-3 stops).

This 412 second time-lapse exposure was started at T-10 seconds in the countdown, and terminated at T+402 seconds when visibility was lost a minute before MECO.

I processed the RAW image in CS3 to bring out the sky color using the "fill light" tool.

The original, uncropped image can be viewed here: [link]
The checklist I used to make sure it worked is here: [link]

My first attempt at a night launch timed-exposure is Cloudy Night Launch [link] which was the same space shuttle Endeavour from March of 2008.

Other shuttle photos are in this gallery: [link]

Notes from comments:
The camera was level (I used a hot shoe bubble level [link]), but the wide angle lens caused the horizon to be curved, and since I cropped some of the left side off the image, the horizon appears un-level.

The shuttle appears to "fall back to earth" because the orbit and earth are round.

The trail changes color because the solid rockets burn very yellow but the main engines burn blue. The SRBs separate after two minutes of flight, but the main engines continue for another six minutes.

Yes, I managed to get this shot just about exactly right, but it was my third launch and second night launch, so I knew what to expect and where the flight path would take it.