I don't know how to manually focus on my digital camera, so it only wanted to focus on closer things like the back of heads. The shuttle is in the middle of this shot, approximately 8 miles away. Last time the shuttle launched, I saw it when I was 45 minutes away in Orlando, so I have high expectations for being so close. For people who jumped on early ticket purchases, they get to be on Merritt Island, which is a good drive down the NASA causeway, which has restricted access on launch days. The people in the very front of the spectator area waited in the same spot for about 7 hours.