Law Abiding Patriot

NASA makes historic SpaceX Crew Dragon launch

https://www.foxnews.com/science/nasa-sp ... gon-launch

We watched what we can see from our backyard. Years ago we drove to the Cape to watch a launch.
It rained and it was cancelled.  Swore I'd never do that again.
 
 
 

We usually watch launches from the front yard, but a few pine trees block the view for about 20 degrees elevation and the blood suckers were out in force. So we drove north a mile and the view was open and sky dark and clear.  It was great, the sky was clear enough I looked up and saw the Andromeda Galaxy through my windshield!  Nice to live in Florida.  We could even see some of the ship from the blue to green then orange exhaust flame.   Then the ship occulted a bright star and left an exhaust glow around the star.  Neat.
 

Yes, the sky above our home in central Florida is still dark and transparent enough for me to look up and without optical aid see M31 (Andromeda galaxy) and M33 (Triangulum galaxy) when it is high in my sky.  Having been an amateur astronomer for decades I know where to look and what to see.  

When we first moved here the sky was darker and very clear.  That was in 2001 and light glow from our small burg around 7 miles away and Sebring, 15 miles north, has increased but not so much as to flood my dark sky from 20-30 degrees off the western horizon, but is very dark from there to the eastern horizon. The sky north is the same as in the west but south is absolutely dark.  The reason I chose this area was for the great astronomical seeing (how steady the sky is).  It is absolutely great here.

So much for the atmospheric jabber