The sound rumbles in about 25 seconds into the launch. Yes, for the first 20 or so seconds you hear absolutely nothing while witnessing one of mankind’s greatet achievements rocketing free of our home planet on a pillar of fire as bright as the sun. Then you hear it: a sustained thunder that rolls in, followed by chest thumping crackles that beat any fireworks display you’ve ever experienced.

Read more about my NASA experiences at CTTechJunkie.com.

NASA once relied on big networks and even bigger names like Walter Cronkite to help carry its message. But now NASA is broadening its reach to social media. The agency recently invited 150 of its Twitter followers to a space shuttle launch “tweetup” event, giving people like math professor Joel Glickman – and his live streaming iPhone – access that was once reserved only for the media’s elite. But this is more than a fan appreciation day. NASA officials estimate that the videos, photos, blog posts and tweets will reach more than 1.8 million people, an audience size that rivals most cable networks in primetime. NASA knows all too well what happens when the public’s interest goes elsewhere. A Saturn V Rocket, once destined for the moon, now sits in a museum at the Kennedy Space Center – the result of budget cuts in the 70′s. With the Space Shuttle program set to conclude in 2011 and no immediate replacement vehicle ready, NASA hopes reaching the public through its most enthusiastic supporters will keep interest in the program strong during this critical transition.

Target dates will be on November 30th and December 1st between 3 and 4 am. Should make for a spectacular night launch and a challenging photo opportunity!

NASA staff will try to get us similar access on the rescheduled date. If we do get access I’ll be here and will be more than happy to act as the “pool reporter” for those who can’t make it back.

Last night I learned an interesting factoid from a NASA staffer: the countdown clock at the Kennedy Space Center press site is likely the most viewed time piece in the world.  It is the same clock that billions watched on television as Apollo 11 launched for the moon.  The National Register of Historic Places has it listed along with its accompanying flagpole.   But that's not the only piece of Apollo era hardware in use at the Kennedy Space Center.

With only a 20% chance of launch today, NASA has decided to scrub today and aim for tomorrow just after 3:00 p.m.  The weather should be much better.  

We will likely arrive on-site at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.  There will be an opportunity for us to watch the astronauts traveling to the pad in the “Astrovan.”  Buzz Aldrin will be onsite as well, but we’re not sure if he will be stopping by to visit us.  That would be a real treat.  

I feel for the dedicated NASA staff organizing the event for us here.  They are continually having to adjust schedules and work out logistics for 150 tweeters on the fly.   What was supposed to do be a two day event for them has stretched out to nearly a week of constant scheduling changes, additions, and cancellations.  Hopefully we’ll have a launch tomorrow!

It’s 6:00 a.m. and “tanking” of the shuttle’s large orange fuel tank has begun.  Weather is looking very, very, iffy this afternoon (only about a 20% chance of launch) but if there’s any kind of break in the scattered thunderstorms they are going to make an attempt.

Embedded above is live video from Spaceflight Now, an excellent source for space related news.  Miles O’Brien, a former CNN reporter, will be hosting today’s launch from the press site.  You can follow their live mission blog here.  Time for me to hit the road!  With luck we may actually see a launch this afternoon.

We will be gathering back at the press site tomorrow morning ahead of the launch scheduled for 3:52 eastern.

Joel Glick, a math professor at Hudson Valley Community College, is streaming just about every minute of the NASA Tweet Up live from his iPhone and his specially designed streaming hat!  At one point yesterday he had over 100 viewers tuning in for his unique perspective on this week’s NASA Tweetup event.

You can catch up with his broadcast below:

Watch live video from nasatweetup on Justin.tv

Tonight we had an opportunity to visit Space Shuttle Discovery on the pad ahead of Wednesday's launch.  Tonight the shuttle was still protected by the rotating service structure which will be rolled back tomorrow evening.  We will be heading back out to the pad tomorrow to witness the retraction and get what should be an amazing dusk to evening view of Discovery fully prepped and ready to go.

Picked up my credentials this morning and will be headed over to the NASA press site in about an hour! Should have some great photos of the Kennedy Space Center coming up.

NASA will stream the tweetup presentations starting at 1 pm on ustream:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-television

Tune in! Let me know if you have any questions you’d like asked in the comments.

Earlier this afternoon the Delta Blog twitter account announced that they posted a Hawaiian travel guide. Given that I’ve been there a few times and very fond of the place, I decided to check it out.

It was then that I discovered that they mixed up the location of the Shangri La in their post, attributing its location to the Big Island when in fact it’s on Oahu.

The Shangri La house is on Oahu, not the Big Island

So being the good samaritan that I am, I sent a reply tweet to the Delta Blog account to point out the error. To my surprise I received this back shortly thereafter:

It’s almost like a robot replied it happened so quick with such a generic response. After checking back and the blog post didn’t change, I thought perhaps I should let the Delta folks know I wasn’t just making conversation. Here was their response:

A Brick Wall...

Think it made a difference? Nope. As of 9:30 p.m. the site still has the incorrect information.

This is petty, I know. But like my prior experience with Best Buy, it shows that executing a corporate Twitter presence poorly is just as bad as not having one at all.

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, we’ll also remember the great narrator of the 20th century.

Tuesday, June 17th was the Essex Rotary Club’s classic car night. Many of our members have some beautifully restored vehicles.  Even better our meeting time is around 6:00 p.m. making for some perfect light!

Click here to see a slideshow of some photos I snapped tonight of Ralph Hermann and Dave Winstead showing off their Model T Fords.

Pixar has yet to make a movie I didn’t like. Up looks great, and I’m sure Toy Story 3 will be too when it comes out next June.

Today I am excited to announce the launch of a project that has been in the works for the last few months. It’s called LocalOnlineNews.TV.

The concept is simple: Experienced, professional video journalists report on issues and events that impact local communities. Our reporters will focus on a single community and file reports every day or two on hard news and other events taking place around town.

Each story consists of a 2-3 minute “package” (similar to the evening news), as well as ‘extended content’ with complete, uncut interviews with local officials and newsmakers.

This week we officially kicked off coverage in West Hartford with reporter Anna Stonestreet. She’s filed four reports already with more on the way. Content is posted at http://www.localonlinenews.tv as well as every major video hosting provider. We’re on Facebook and Twitter too.

We’ll be expanding coverage over the next several weeks with additional reporters that you’ll be hearing about soon.

While I work to build a viable business model, the editorial component will be developed by my co-founder, former WTNH reporter/anchor Anna Sava. Anna is an Emmy Award winning television journalist who brings a tremendous amount of expertise to this effort.

The idea for this endeavor came to life earlier this year after my hometown lost three of its four news sources. For many towns in Connecticut these losses are especially troubling because by law important public policy matters (like school and municipal budgets) are voted on in public town hall meetings and/or referendums.

There is a real need (and demand) for timely and objective information on important local issues. The question will be how new forms of local media will fill the gap being vacated by traditional sources.  I believe the time (and technology) is right for professionally produced online video at the “hyperlocal” level.

I look forward to your input as we develop this new business!

My friend Antonio brought over some Numi flowering tea and we decided to do a time lapse video. You can find the HD version on Facebook.

Music by Tim Stewart. Numi’s official blog can be found here.

Some Nikon cameras, like the new Nikon D90, have an interval feature that programs the camera to do some limited time lapse captures. In this case I set it to shoot a photo every fifteen seconds starting about 12:30 p.m. this afternoon (right when the snow was about to start). It collected 730 images (before the battery died) that I later stitched together to make about 12 seconds of video.  The camera limits captures to 999 images, although connecting it directly to a PC or Mac will give more flexibility.

Quicktime is an excellent tool for the stitching operation, it was almost too easy!  Special tip of the hat to the Inside Aperture blog for the inspiration and instructions.  I set the camera to shoot high quality, full res JPEGs and loaded them into Quicktime with the image sequence option.  The file was enormous (2.9 gigs for 12 seconds!) but it gave me a ton of resolution to do that motion zoom on the BBQ.

You can find a better quality version on my Facebook video page.

You can also download the full 720P Quicktime by clicking here.

Here are a few of the better shots:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

And the video update:

Photos from last night are up! Check out the slide show by clicking the image above or here.

When I blogged the 2004 convention in Boston, the most I could do was some text and photos. Now we’re in the age of YouTube, faster bandwidth, and nearly unlimited storage. Which means more content and more equipment!

Canon VIXIA HF100:

The HF100 is an outstanding high definition camcorder that shoots to SD card.  See my full review here.

Sony HVR-A1U

There’s probably something newer out now, but this is great piece of equipment.  Lousy in low light but the audio inputs (two balanced XLRs) make up for it.

Nikon D300

You know you want one .  If you’re getting serious about taking pictures, this mid-range camera is well worth the investment.  Very fast, very responsive, and with the right lens amazing output!

Litepanels “Micro” On-Camera Dimmable 5600K LED Video Light

It’s a little on the blue side, but this is a very bright and energy efficient video light.  Runs on four AA’s for hours with absolutely no heat.

Gorillapod SLR-Zoom Flexible Tripod

Whoever invented these things I hope is getting very wealthy.  The gorillapod is a tripod with flexible legs that can be wrapped around objects very securely.  It’ll mount a camera to just about anything.  A great thing to keep in your bag.

Apple MacBook Pro

It’s amazing how much you can do on a laptop.  Apple’s game changing technology is not just limited to iPhones and iPods.  And to make the most of it you should be sure to install:

Apple Final Cut Studio 2 (Mac)

Final Cut Studio is the exactly the stuff that the pros use.  And it’ll run on your Macbook Pro.  Amazing.

Sennheiser EW100ENG G2 Wireless Microphone Kit

Good video requires good audio.  This is an affordable but professional wireless mic kit.  Excellent sound quality and built like a tank!

Shure SM58

They call it ‘legendary’ for a reason.  It’s unidirectional meaning it’ll pick up your subject and not all of the background noise.

Plenty of video blogging coming from Denver!  Stay tuned.

I took this picture from my very lucky seat on the stage the last night of the 2004 convention.

Back in 2004 I took nearly a thousand pictures at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, including a few when I was given last minute seating on the stage when John Kerry received the nomination.   So to get ready for the 2008 festivities I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the photos I took last time.  Each link will open in a new window:

Day 1 Photos

Day 2 Photos

Day 3 Photos

Day 4 Photos

Photos from the Stage!

You will need the latest version of Flash to play this as it is encoded in h.264.