shooting the shuttle launch

[slapshot]

I have a friend going to shoot the shuttle launch in Florida next month. He will be using a Nikon D200 with a 300mm lens. Yes it will be from a long distance. Any thoughts on how to not get just a big light blob on launch? thanks

[CaptainTom]

shoot it off of a HDTV screen.

[fivegrand]

Your friend will need to determine whether to expose for the highlight details or the lowlight details and adjust accordingly.

Me personally - I'd expose for the lowlight details and let the highlights blow. I can always burn them down a bit in post if they're totally wacky.

[JamesB]

is this a night launch I take it?

I saw a night launch one way before i got into photography, but if I was gonna do it again I would have 2 cameras, 1 with a wide angle lens and 1 with a zoom and i would be trying like mad to get all the shots I could at varying exposures to make sure i got the shots I wanted.

James