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

This is a short slide show with photos taken from a balloon flight over Boulder, Colorado in June 2006. A couple coworkers and I rigged up a small 3.2Mp digital camera with external shutter control and heaters to take a photo approximately every 25 seconds throughout the balloon flight. We successfully captured around 250 photos from the launch elevation of 5000 feet to where the balloon turned around with a small pressure activated release valve at nearly 100,000 feet above sea level. The balloon was carrying a NOAA FPH water vapor instrument as well as an ozonesonde. The package had a GPS unit sending data back down to earth via a 403MHz radiosonde transmitter which we used to track down the package for recovery. This was our the first attempt at taking photos from high altitude and we very pleased with the results. We were very lucky that the balloon floated over the mountains to obtain such great shots with such nice clear skies. We have since flown this camera 3 more times. One of those flights was in the middle of Greenland at a research station. Those photos are saturated because the ice and snow are too bright. I thought it would be more interesting in Greenland than it turned out to be unfortunately. We hope to launch a high altitude balloon camera from Lauder, New Zealand in the future. For more information please view our website at:
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ozwv/wvap/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• high
• altitude
• balloon
• photography
• near space
• weather balloon
• noaa esrl
• 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.

[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]

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.

[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]

@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]

@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 ?