As we drove towards the shuttle, it was vibrantly clear where it was thanks to a pair of batman-like spotlights shining across the spacecraft. After the drive to the causeway where the driver told us all sorts of useful information like what to do in case of a scrub (if they cancel the launch due for whatever reason), we hopped off the bus and found ourselves on the causeway. If you want to see exactly where we were, click here to see it on Google Maps. If you look basically due north across the water, you'll see two circular launch pads in the area labeled Gator Hole. Those are launch pads 39A and 39B. Tonight's launch was taking place on pad 39A, the one to the upper-left. We were quite fortunate in our location because if we had gotten there later, we would have been farther southeast on the causeway which was both farther away from the shuttle, plus there is an island directly north of the causeway and if you go east along it, the island obscures your view of the shuttle itself.
One thing I saw rather quickly was that at 8 miles away, my 200mm lens wasn't long enough to get a tight close-up of the shuttle. This was shot at 200mm and slightly cropped for composition. That said, I was prepared for this and had a plan... ;)
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