We don't get the aurora borealis or even much lightning, but satellite launches from Vandenberg are pretty cool (as mentioned earlier today.) This was a Minotaur rocket fired over the Pacific tonight. I was in a room of puzzled locals and out-of-towners at McCormick & Schmick downtown and got to sound really smart for a moment as I explained the eerie light trails. These photos were shot from the top of the L.A. Times parking structure by national desk copy chief Steve Devol, who finagled a break at just the right time. Click on the photos to see larger versions.

More blogged photos at 2020 Hindsight (highly recommended), LAVoice.org and Blogging.la. The website Spaceflight Now has other photos and a story that says the launch, visible across the Southwest, outshone most of the others lit up at the pad near Lompoc through the years.

The Minotaur's ascent to reach the desired orbit around Earth was timed perfectly to produce a spectacular "twilight phenomenon" that occurs when rockets or missiles are launched just before sunrise or shortly after sunset. Unburned fuel particles and water drops in the rocket's contrail freeze in the less dense upper atmosphere and get reflected by sunlight at high altitudes to generate such breath-taking scenes. The winds aloft twist the exhaust cloud, giving it a corkscrew effect.

Spaceflight Now carries this photo from Gene Blevins that I gotta believe will be in tomorrow's Daily News. Other blogworthy photos out there? Send the link.