STS-131 April 5, 2010

Fourth, and so far final, launch of this series. Best of the bunch, most likely. Phenomenal visual effects went on for almost forty-five minutes, as the cloud kept transforming in shape and lighting angle as the sun closed in on the horizon from below. Photos taken from Floral Park, Merritt Island, looking east before sunrise. All shots are presented in the order in which they were taken, and differences in lightness or darkness of the sky are a result of differing exposure settings. Photos were taken hand-held with a Nikon D40 using the standard 18-55mm zoom lens that comes with it. All photos from previous launches in this series were post-processed, but these images are taken straight off the chip, untouched except for resizing, without any further adjustments.