The First Day of 2026 had rain (0.61"). New Year's Day 2026 was special as my Alma Mater Indiana University won its first Rose Bowl football game 38-3! The last time IU was in the Rose Bowl was in 1968. I was an Astrophysics sophomore student at IU at the time and I attended the game. This is my ticket:

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on Friday night, 2 January, 100 minutes after sunset here. This launch was on a different trajectory from the usual StarLink launches from California, so the rocket exhaust was distinctly different than most past launches I've seen here. I took these iPhone 15 Pro Max photos using the Camera app (Night Mode, 3 seconds, 1X and 2X lenses) and a video using the Camera app (1X and 2X lenses). Clouds were illuminated by a Full Moon. The Moon photo was taken with the Adobe app Indigo in its "Pro" mode (5X lens, cropped).

Click to view video

Click to view video

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