Rocket Launch Visible from Eastern US: 27 April 2026

[deluxestogie]

A United Launch Alliance rocket is scheduled to launch on Monday evening, April 27, at 8:52 pm EDT. Below is a map of where it might be visible, and the timing after launch.

Atlas V Amazon Leo 6

www.ulalaunch.com

Bob

 

[Tutu]

Shoot that seems to just be a near miss for me here

 

[deluxestogie]

Live stream, starting 27 April, at 8:32 pm EDT:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYTMd1XYguo


Bob

 

[StoneCarver]

Thanks for posting about this, Bob. Although I'm a member of the local astronomy club, I don't keep up on rocket launches. We got lucky one night when we were at the club's dark sky site and saw a spacex lauch from texas. You'd think we were too far north to see it but there it was going low across the southern horizon. I'd say it was 10 to 20 degrees above the horizon. It caught my eye because it looked like this weird v shaped cloud moving across the sky. Also, just because its dark out does not mean you can't see the exhaust plume particularly after your eyes are dark adapted. So, maybe go out about 30minutes before launch. Grab something to smoke whilst dark adapting your eyes. Have some binoculars handy; 10x50 binoculars would be more than enough to do the job. You'll only get a few minutes to see it and you may need a clear, low view of the eastern horizon. After about an hour, iow the length of time for the satellites to make their first orbit, we might be able to see the trail of satelites but the website Bob linked to above doesn't seem to go that far in the information it provided.

For the spacex launch we saw, I could see the light from the engine blast with my widefield refractor at about 25x magnification.

 

[deluxestogie]

No joy.

Bob

 

[StoneCarver]

It was a bit cloudy from my vantage; so I couldn't see the exhaust plume. Although, I think I was able to make out the light from the rocket but I couldn't be sure if I was seeing sunlight reflection or engine burn. I think, by the time it got in view for me, it had already done a stage separation because I saw two lights. As they travelled across the horizon, they kept getting farther apart and the one behind kept descending lower than the one in front. Plus there were no red and green blinking lights on it. So, I'm at least sure I wasn't looking at an airplane. An hour later, the sky was clouded over. So, I wasn't able to see the light pollution emitters, I mean, the 29 satellites that the rocket had ejected.

 

[deluxestogie]

I think, by the time it got in view for me, it had already done a stage separation because I saw two lights. As they travelled across the horizon, they kept getting farther apart and the one behind kept descending lower than the one in front.

I believe I briefly saw the same two lights. They appeared nearly due East, at an elevation of maybe 20°. But then I lost them behind a tree. I think that by the time of stage separation, they were at a high enough altitude to be reflecting direct sunlight.

Bob

 

[StoneCarver]

I believe I briefly saw the same two lights.

Sounds like our observations agree. I agree with it being at least 20degrees above the horizon and no more than 30. Neat-o. I also lost sight of it behind a tree. I'm sure it was a different tree though. I'm also going with sunlight reflection. If it was flames from the rocket's engine, I'd expect it to have been more yellow or orange rather then the white light that it appeared to be. And why else would the separated stage continue to glow so brightly for so long? I had my binoculars with me, 8x32, but they didn't really serve me well other than to confirm there didn't seem to be red and green blinking lights on it; perhaps if there were no clouds they would have served better.