288/365 Space
288/365
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[UPDATE 10/23/11
Thank you to everyone who has looked at our project! The response has
been completely overwhelming. We were itching to launch another one
but after seeing the feedback, it makes us that much more excited to
get it done. The next launch will be about 2 weeks from now, and that payload will
have a video camera along for the ride as well! We've sorted out all the issues we had on this run, so all the images
should be usable. Thank you again for all of the support and stay
tuned for more images in the future!]
This is what space looks like from a weather balloon. We're working on determining exactly what altitude we got to, but I'd put it somewhere near 100,000 feet.
You can see about half of the city of Lubbock along the bottom of the photo just right of center.
We launched our little spacecraft (Cygnus) at 9:02am from 33° 49' 28"N 102° 53' 56"W, and it touched back down to Earth at 11:56am at 33° 19' 21"N 101° 59' 42"W. 62 miles from where it was released. This image was taken 1 hour and 55 minutes into the flight.
The camera was traveling in a styrofoam beer cooler from Wal Mart. The cooler was lifted into space using a 22 foot weather balloon filled with Helium. A parachute was attached to the cooler to slow and stabilize the fall of the cooler when the balloon eventually popped from lack of air pressure as it rose closer to the vacuum of space.
There were some issues with frost building up on the plexiglass shield and it actually ruined most of the images. Live and learn I suppose. We'll get it down next time. Most people we've seen do this online take 3-6 months of planning and preparation before they launch something. We did it in 13 days. I guess it's only fitting that we overlooked something. I'm just glad we found it and everything was still in one piece!
Because there was so much issue with frost, I did my best to remove it from this image. It made the curve of the Earth a little bumpy in the left half of the image, but you can see what it should look like toward the right edge.
Check out a video of the balloon being released here!
UPDATE 10/19/11
We made the local news! So awesome. Check out the story here. (I'll update this link if I get a higher quality video)
Comments and faves
Charles Henry, All Too Real, Anthony Cronin, denniseagles, and 215 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Charles Henry (19 months ago | reply)
very nice!
Jeanette Lamb (19 months ago | reply)
You're a bloody legend Erich. :D
denniseagles (19 months ago | reply)
That is just awesome. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to send my DSLR into space.
johnbozeman93 (19 months ago | reply)
Boy Genius strikes again!
chipdatajeffb (19 months ago | reply)
Dawg!
boogerfingers (19 months ago | reply)
crazy awesome!!!nice job!!
DW5198 (19 months ago | reply)
VERY cool!!
Tom Heisey (19 months ago | reply)
Awesome project and shot! It's been fascinating to watch.
VisualUniverse (19 months ago | reply)
absolutely amazing, Erich...superb accomplishment
Lachlan MacDonald (19 months ago | reply)
Awesome!!!
txn1943 (19 months ago | reply)
You guys are amazing! The world will hear from you soon, I'm sure!
Landon Akins (19 months ago | reply)
Just saw you guys on the Lubbock news. Good job guys.
Eric Adeleye Photography (19 months ago | reply)
Nice work.
Neeraj Murali [deleted] (19 months ago | reply)
hay how u managed to click the shutter !?? how did u connect the camera ??
Fort Photo (19 months ago | reply)
This is so very cool!
nathij (19 months ago | reply)
seriously amazing work guys.
nathij (19 months ago | reply)
xinapray (19 months ago | reply)
An amazing project and set of images. VERY well done!
Zzzzt!Zzzzt! (19 months ago | reply)
Great work!!
Peter_Hansen (19 months ago | reply)
Awesome job!
Jacob Tompkins | Worked Photography (19 months ago | reply)
Nice! I'm glad your camera came back to you in working condition!
smee.bruce (19 months ago | reply)
Excellent project - kudos to you!
(so . . . how you gonna fix the condensation next time ? !)
Kombizz (19 months ago | reply)
sexy mother earth
irq506 (19 months ago | reply)
..ah I see why you did it in lubbock.. its really close to Roswell... yeah man
Buratto (19 months ago | reply)
Congratulations!
terrance_1 (19 months ago | reply)
I just read about your project on Engadget, awesome work, great pictures
Robberobber (19 months ago | reply)
Congrat for the success! This is awesome!
Eleazar93 (19 months ago | reply)
Awesome! I love it.
pheochromocytoma (19 months ago | reply)
Hey nice work! I've run my test runs with a couple of canon point and shoots, and hope to send up an dSLR or micro4/3 this summer.
www.flickr.com/photos/pheochromocytoma/623435 2634/in/phot...
maus92 (19 months ago | reply)
Uae a GoPro next time.
Heartinpiece (19 months ago | reply)
That's awesome, the next shots will be my wallpaper^^
Looking forward to the shots in 2 weeks:D
pathogenation (19 months ago | reply)
Sweet.
orien2v2 (19 months ago | reply)
Awsm work! Hope next time the video cam will get some UFOs snooping in on us up there! But even if there won't be any, it'll still be cool!
benv103 (19 months ago | reply)
I think you should buy the nikon gps attachment and put it on the d300s, that would be really awesome. I wonder how high up the GPS satellites can accurately be used to report altitude...?
Dr.ran (19 months ago | reply)
Sooooooo Cool!!
jH ! Photography (19 months ago | reply)
Amazing!! Well done!!
l--o-o--kin thru (19 months ago | reply)
...well done, my friends
kenkawakami (19 months ago | reply)
Congratulations! It's amazing how you guys thought of this project.
Hoping to see more of your works! :D
Good luck on your next launch!
(I hope Nikon would hear about this and give you guys a D3s / D3x with a weather sealed Nikkor 12-24 )
endoce (19 months ago | reply)
Awesome!!
piroskadar1 (19 months ago | reply)
really good idea, awesome photos!
christian_henkel (19 months ago | reply)
Nice!
weiran0111 (19 months ago | reply)
cool！
FBallK (19 months ago | reply)
Amazing!!!
holg.R (19 months ago | reply)
very nice. badass to let 2.000 $ fly away.
frankenwagen (19 months ago | reply)
You made it on international news as well :-)
www.golem.de/1110/87242.html
german898 (19 months ago | reply)
cool wow amazing
vii2012 (19 months ago | reply)
amazing！
mamamiya (19 months ago | reply)
My Birthday! and you guys gave a perfect gift ;p
SuLTaN Al.TuRKi (19 months ago | reply)
amazing !
Hdknitro (19 months ago | reply)
Amazing setup guys