Information needed for painting

[PeterB]

(Also asked on BAUTForum)

My wife’s wedding present to me is to pay for a painting I’d like to commission from a local (Canberra) artist. (It’s probably pointless to add that I love my wife very much!)

I have a very clear view of what the painting should be, but there are a number of details I’d like to clarify to help get the details right.

The picture I have in mind is of the launch of a Saturn V rocket, just after the inter-stage and the Boost Protective Cover have been jettisoned. The view would be looking back toward the approaching rocket, but a little to the side, so that the whole length of the rocket would be visible. I also intend to ask the artist to take a bit of artistic license to show the recently discard first stage first stage a bit closer than would normally be the case. Below would be the Earth.

So here are my questions which I hope some of you may be able to help with:

1. At this point, what would be visible on the ground? A bit of Florida? Out into the Gulf of Mexico towards the Mississippi delta? Something in between?

2. At what angle to the local horizontal would the rocket’s attitude be? I get the impression from my Apollo 11 video that it was something like 30- 40 degrees above horizontal, but it’s hard to tell.

3. The video I referred to above shows Apollo 11 just as the first stage engines shut down and the first stage is discarded. Is the continuation of that particular piece of footage available anywhere publicly, and if so, does it show Apollo 11 when the inter-stage and BPC are discarded?

4. The artist says he often uses MS Flight Simulator in order to get the right angle for his paintings. I understand there’s some sort of spacecraft flight simulator. Is it available on-line? If so, where? Would it be useful for him or me to visualise the sort of picture I have in mind?

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

Incidentally, the artist’s name is Graham Charlton, and he’s an excellent painter of landscapes and military hardware. I can highly recommend him if you’d like to commission a work of art.

[Obviousman]

An excellent programme is ORBITER.

See here:

orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html

[Bob B.]

This web page gives some information on the Apollo 11 ascent. (The page has similar information on all the ascents but I picked Apollo 11 as an example.) The time you are talking about is shortly after S-IC/S-II separation. The Web page gives us the following:

Altitude: 36.029 nm
Range: 51.323 nm
Latitude: 28.7046 deg N
Longitude: 79.6764 deg E
Flight Path Angle: 19.020 deg
Heading Angle: 75.436 deg

Latitude and Longitude of course gives you the exact location of the spacecraft. Flight path angle is the angle from horizontal and heading angle is measured east of north. This should give your artist a pretty good idea of the location and orientation of the spacecraft at the time in question. (If you want to advance the clock a bit you can always interpolate from the information given in the table.)

At an altitude of 36.029 nm, the distance to the horizon is about 500 nm (925 km). If you find the given latitude and longitude on a map and draw a circle with a radius equivalant to 500 nm centered on that location, then you should have a good idea of what land features are visible. The edge of the circle is the horizon and everything inside it is visible from the spacecraft. You know the heading of the rocket and the angle at which the artist will depict it, so you should be able to figure out the direction of view and the visible landmarks.

[PeterB]

Thanks Bob and Evan. They're exactly what I need.

Cheers

[LunarOrbit]

I found this picture online (I can't remember where, but I think it was a free desktop wallpaper site)



Does it look technically accurate?

[echnaton]

The second stage is a hydrogen/LOX rocket. We shouldn’t see the flame.

[mid]

admin said:

I found this picture online (I can't remember where, but I think it was a free desktop wallpaper site)



Does it look technically accurate?

Close....

But as mentioned, the vehicle is well above the tenable atmopsphere at this point, and that massive cloud of flame would not be(and was not) visible.

Additionally, at this point, the vehicle is pitched over relatively flat to the horizion. Drop the nose of that vehicle by about 30 degrees or so and you'd be fairly close...with the S1 and skirt being at just about the same level as the vehicle itself...or a little below it.

[Tanalia]

Also, since at this point it's just a bit east of Florida, I would expect identifiable land in the background, not something that looks like clouds over water.