Space Shuttle Enterprise over New York City

With the Space Shuttle Enterprise's trip to New York City finally happening today, after a few reschedules due to weather, I arranged to take the morning off from work and figured I'd go to Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan to see it.

It was colder than I expected, and as one guy nearby commented, colder than it was all winter. I got a spot raised slightly above the park, where there were a few other spectators as well.

I was there for over an hour as it got more crowded, including at least one person who got a phone call from someone in Washington D.C. who told him when it was taking off so we'd know when to expect it.

With patchy clouds the sun shone off it different between photos, and I wasn't able to get a good, consistent exposure setting on my camera in manual mode (or at least, not for a clumsy guy like me who can't fiddle with the camera and capture a moving object). And I also realized just how dirty my filter is on the lens…

I used it in full automatic mode on the shuttle's first pass, and then on aperture priority mode on the second, with poor results.  But a few of the second pass photos are still nice because the contrast between the shuttle and the sky is much different.

In June they'll be moving it to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, which is just a couple of blocks from my apartment.

Here it is going by the Status of Liberty.

Cropped closer shot of it passing by.

Here it comes!  Past the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and over Governor's Island.

Here it comes!  Past the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and over Governor's Island.

Here's people closer to the river, not blocked by the structure I was on, following it as it heads north...

Here's the second pass, coming down the Hudson from the north.  This is where I switched to aperture mode on my camera, with it set for the narrowest (i.e. slowest) aperture so I'd have the longest exposures.  I was hoping to do that and try the "zoom effect" but really it was too far away for that to be effective, and by then my fingers were shaky from the cold wind...

Bye, bye Enterprise...

Overall, it was fun.  And just seeing something so cool makes me think my job is very boring and doesn't result in much interesting.