[NLRS] ESA Vega -- Sentinal 2 observation, more information

[Bill Davis via NLRS]

  I did a bit more digging and have more details on my (and also Al N9ISN) observations of the ESA Vega launch Monday night.
  The event that I saw and then photographed involved the last stage 4 (AVUM) burn. That burn occurred at 03:36 GMT, it was a one min burn. I signed with Gary at 03:16GMT. I made a quick trip to the dock and observed that there was indeed aurora. I then when back to the house and got the camera, did the ISO set up, bulb release hooked up, verified battery etc  (I suspect I did a few other things too) ... I then made my way to the dock. No hurry the aurora is going to be there a while and still a lot of sky light from the earlier sun set.

  I VERY QUICKLY observed the initial compact luminous spot. What I am try to establish is a good approximation of that observation. The AVUM burn was for one min. 03:35GMT - 03:36GMT
  Recalling that I watched the "sparkling event" for a while, indeed 1 min seems right, so I must have seen the entire burn. I mounted the camera on the  tripod, made a quick attempt to get manual focus at infinity (with a tower beacon 4miles away). I then tried to train the camera on the object. Immediately I had issues, the object was so close to the zenith I couldn't get it into the frame because the pan/tilt lever on the tripod was hitting the tripod legs. I had to rotate the tripod several times, and still keep the tripod on the dock, to get a position that would "work". I can't see the viewfinder  because I can't get my head under the camera looking straight up to see anything about the exposure or framing. (The LCD view finder display would have been easy, but I was in a rush and trying to use the optical viewfinder) Being these were the first frames I shot all night, it took a bit to verify my exposure and that I actually was capturing the object.
   I have 3 exposures, that data file revivals first exposure 03:45:01GMT That time was within one min of real time, the camera clock had drifted a bit. Last exposure 03:45:31GMT.
   It seems perfectly logical that I could have lost 9 minutes fussing with mounting the camera  in the dark, doing the rough focus etc. I really missed nothing observable AFTER watching the entire burn. If I had gotten earlier exposures, it would have been very similar. The exposures are 4-5sec in length and some elongation is due to the timed exposure due to the drifting of the gases, plus as time passed the gases dispersed into an elongated "blob" . 

   Very exciting to now know the exact event that I witnessed, an actual engine burn. What I photographed was gases from that burn. (or perhaps a fuel dump, but doubtful to me that quickly after the burn)
The AVUM's propulsion module uses a RD-843 rocket engine liquid fuel rocket burning pressure-fed highly toxic UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide as propellants. Built in the Ukraine.
Sentinel-2 is a polar-orbiting, multispectral high-resolution imaging mission for land monitoring to provide, for example, imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas. Sentinel-2 can also deliver information for emergency services. 
73  Bill