Sputnik's trail

This is a photo of the satellite trail of Sputnik, the Russian spacecraft.  It is a time exposure made in our back yard.  It was printed on the front page of the Fort Worth StarTelegram and the Comanche Chief newspapers.

My father made this photograph and was very proud of it. Here is the letter he sent to me in Iowa City at the time.

Tuesday, October 22, 1957

Dear Patsy and Hayne,

I am enclosing a picture of Sputnik's rocket, which Bill and I took at 5:02 Sunday morning.  This is a time exposure of approximately 4 seconds while the rocket was directly overhead.  I feel very fortunate to obtain this photo.  To give you some idea of the orbit and the directions…the camera was placed on the rock walk halfway between the house and the back fence  North and South is across the long end of the picture.  The weak beginning and the curved tail are false impressions--due to too strong an action in opening and closing the shutter.

The direction of course, was from the northwest to the south east.  The rocket at this time was 39 minutes ahead of Sputnik.