Re: Serious question from a skeptic - practical realities of taking

Doc wrote:
<snip>
> Or do I have a mistaken notion of how powerful the available optics
> are? The News stations show clear, distinct shots of the fast-moving
> Space Shuttle when it's well into its trajectory on launch days, I
> would guess from at least as far if not farther than these objects are
> from the cameras. The above link is an incident that occurred over a
> major city and apparently caused quite a buzz. *Nobody* there had good
> gear they could whip out to take some pics?
> 
> I would think a major city has astronomy buffs and universities who
> have fairly sophisticated gear already set up to photograph distant
> objects. Wouldn't capturing something at airliner altitude be quite
> possible?
> 
> Thanks

The pix of the shuttle soon after takeoff are made through a 
special telescope, made by Perkin Elmer, as I recall.  It 
allows the ground crews to monitor the takeoff closely, with 
the extra use - a plus for the image-concisions NASA - of 
providing dramatic shots for TV.