High Altitude Balloon Flight in HD - Near Space Photography over Colorado

[goldenageism]

do you know how much the big high altitude scientific ballons are?

[2shopvacs]

@goldenageism depends on what size you get. I think you can get one for around $100, maybe a little less.

[goldenageism]

not a weather balloon i want to buy scientific ballon they are huge

[RuneFinity44]

But........Will...

WILL IT BLEND?!

[TailsBit]

Hi 2shopvacs I also live in colorado & have seen so many videos like this & have been wanting to do something just like it, I have everything I need ready to go & want to do it but here in colorado do you have any idea how I could contact the FAA or what I need to do to be allowed to do this, I dont want to get into any trouble, & I know if I launch with no idea what to do first I could end up in deep trouble with the law. What should I do so I can launch my balloon?

[emixam101]

And also HOW the pictures got so CLEAR with all thoses mouvements up there and the winds !!! INCREDIBLE ! And WHAT KIND of HEATERS do you use ??! I found a kodack that have a Intervallmeter incorporate in.But wondering how the pictures can be clear (I don't' to miss all my shots because they get all fuzzy ! !)

[2shopvacs]

@emixam101 we were lucky that the atmosphere was very clear on this day. We did install heaters into the camera and put the entire camera inside a foam box. The heaters were just cement resistors with 3V going across them to produce heat. The Kodak sounds good with the intervalometer. To get clear photos you need clear skies and a camera that can take a quick photo. Most cameras can do this now. Good luck.

[emixam101]

@2shopvacs

Thanks for the informations.Just to be sure does the atmospheric conditions are similar then ground conditions (visibility term) for exemple if i have a visibility of 50 miles on the ground looking forward, does i'm sure the atmosphere will be clear ? And when you say ''a quick photo'' do you mean to put it on the automatic mode ? (IA mode) sorry for all the questions lol but even if i saw somes previous videos before, only you showed PHOTOS so i appreciate you help, thanks

[emixam101]

how can you have an external shutter control on the camera ? And how the GPS is able to get a signal back to you to recover it ? (Because you guys haven't the GPS when it fell back down.) Beause i saw somes amator rockets videos, and i was AMAZED, and i fell on a weather ballon space video, and i saw your video after.Your pictures are AWSOME !!!!! I would LOVE to try a shot myself here, and last question how much can this experiment cost with an average digital camera ?

[2shopvacs]

@emixam101 we took it apart and soldered wires onto the switch. When you short two of the wires it would focus and then when you shorted the third wire it would take a picture. The GPS data is sent down to earth on a 403MHz radio transmitter. We have an antenna in our car with a receiving station that plots where our instrument is every second. We recover the camera and the GPS unit on the ground. The camera we used was $60. It is a 3.2Mpixel camera. You can do this very cheap.

[emixam101]

@2shopvacs

Thanks a lot for the reply i really appreciate it.I'm planning it for September 2012 and already started to checks sites to finds things needed. Do you need an expensive radio transmitter ? The kodack is also Waterproof, (resist under 25 F if we doesn't count isolation)can it be better too ?

[radumotisan]

great pictures, congrats! what kind of radio modules did you use? What power?

[2shopvacs]

@radumotisan thanks. We use a commercial radiosonde called an iMet-1-RSB. It transmits at 403MHz at 250mW. I believe it can send down 120bytes per second of data. There is a built in GPS so that makes finding it easy.

[LtOokapooka]

@2shopvacs How many cubic feet of helium did you put into the balloon? how big was the balloon? ik we're making this like an interrogation XD

[yeastybeastys]

Where did your camera land?

[2shopvacs]

@yeastybeastys It landed in Golden, Colorado on top of a building. The flight path is shown on one of the photos in bright green.

[codykode]

aerialparade - launched 9/25 at 5:30 am, website has amazing pics and info. I also have a video on my page from this launch. Cool vid guys!

[TheBiAtheist]

The balloon disliked this video.

[emogirl78]

whats the song??

[TheBiAtheist]

@emogirl78 Ohm G & Brune - One

[viksra]

What do you use for an altimeter? 

[2shopvacs]

@viksra We have a GPS as well as a very accurate pressure sensor. We calculate the geopotential height using the pressure, ambient temperature, and the humidity. The gps and geopotential height agree very nicely. This data is sent down once a second so we know where it is and how high it is during the flight.

[libbern]

How did the parachute work? Opening it as soon as the balloon pops would cause the camera to drift far, So I guess you deployed it at a lower altidude...? You used gps for that?

[2shopvacs]

@libbern We use a small homemade PVC valve that is opened at a certain pressure (12mb). The entire balloon slowly comes down as helium vents out of the valve. There is a parachute in case the valve fails. The parachute would work plenty well. Look at rocketman parachutes. They are really good. Since there isn't much air at 100kft the chute doesn't do very well but it works good enough. It starts failing at 60m/s and by the time it hits the ground it is only 5 to 10m/s. Good luck.

[AggroBorkenTV]

got a question how did you save the cam and tracker after the ballon was destroyed

want to try it and dunno how to make shure my cam survives this ride

[2shopvacs]

@AggroBorkenTV we have GPS on the package. The camera is in a foam box and we also have a parachute that helps.

[Bobster986]

Wow, that's cool! I have a camera, where can I find the other equipment (Balloon, Gas, and GPS Tracker) to try this myself? Thanks!

[Bobster986]

How did you get the camera to take the photos, then after, how did you get it them back after the flight? Cool Video!

[2shopvacs]

@Bobster986 - we built a small "shutter" circuit board with a microcontroller. This shutter board attached to the switch inside the camera and shorted the two wires necessary to take a photo. The camera was retrieved right after launch with the help from an onboard GPS unit.

[iflydplane]

Very cool, do you have to call the FAA before launch?

Enjoyed the journey. Thanks for the video.

[tengoindiamike]

Excellent video and backing track

[nrw1pjs]

clear air out west...great photos

[2shopvacs]

@nrw1pjs - glad you enjoyed the pics. We did get extremely lucky on this flight with very clear air. On some of our other balloon flights with the camera it was much hazier.