Last Friday SpaceX,

launched its Falcon 9 rocket, 

that illuminated the sky above Southern California in a spectacularly unusual way, leaving many unsuspecting people to wonder if they were witnessing a comet, an attack, or the end of days, photographer Jesse Watson was in nearby Yuma, Arizona to film a timelapse of the launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, 

having never filmed a rocket before he wasn’t sure quite what to expect, but this 40 seconds of footage was well worth the effort, Watson was shooting with four cameras and five lenses: two Nikon D810 DSLRs, a Sony a6500, a Sony a7S II, a Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, a Nikon 85mm f/1.8, a 25mm f/2.2 lens, and a Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens, “I have never shot a rocket launch before, so I did not know exactly what to expect as far as exposure or precise location of the rocket in the horizon,” Watson says, “I wanted to be prepared to capture comprehensive coverage of the spectacle I was a little off target on my initial shot, but thanks to the high-resolution aspect of shooting time-lapse on the Nikon D810 and wide angle lens, I was able to crop into the 6K time-lapse sequence and salvage the framing, I wrapped up a few minutes after the glowing contrail faded, I ended up shooting 2452 images and culled that down to 1315 images for the final project, You can find more of Watson’s work on Facebook, and YouTube, what a totally stunning unique set of pictures made into a timeleapse film.