I've wanted to do my own amateur high altitude balloon project for some time. However, it's significantly harder and more involved than one might think. All I knew is that I wanted to send cameras to high altitude to take cool photographs. I didn't know how.
Fortunately, I met people who do. James Coxon ( http://www.pegasushabproject.org.uk/wiki/doku.php ) invited me to provide the payload for our first joint project - HAPS 1 ( High Altitude Photo System )
His avionics side was quite adventurous. My photo side was a single Canon Powershot A560 running a hacked firmware with a script to take movies and stills.
Long story short - it worked ( although everything went wrong on the day )
http://www.pegasushabproject.org.uk/wiki/doku.php/missions:haps:haps-1 for details. - 32.3km altitude - 900 photos - a hell of chase to get it back.
Amazingly, only 4 days later, a member of the CU Spaceflight team ( http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cuspaceflight/ ) asked if I wanted to take my camera on another flight with their plan for a dawn launch. HELL YES says I - net result - from Thursday at 0700 to Friday at 2300 - I didn't sleep - instead at 0407 on the Friday morning - we launched again. I couldn't follow for the full chase and recovery, but the radio system worked beautifully to the point that the recovery car was less than 1km from the landing point at touch down.
Their paylods were called Nova, and mine is HAPS - so this was Nova 8 / HAPS-D (d for dawn) - and it was a stunner - lot of videos etc here
http://vimeo.com/1628664 Ascent Part 1
http://vimeo.com/1628493 Ascent Part 2
http://vimeo.com/1628497 Ascent Part 3
http://vimeo.com/1628414 Descent
Movies from the HAPS-D camera
http://vimeo.com/1628947 Ascent Part 1
http://vimeo.com/1628809 Ascent Part 2
http://vimeo.com/1628810 Ascent Part 3
http://vimeo.com/1626812 Descent
http://vimeo.com/1628991 All of the still images at 6fps from the HAPS-D camera
http://vimeo.com/1629086 All of the still images at 6fps from the Nova 8 camera
Some of the best stills are here
http://gallery.me.com/djellison#100034
So, my plucky Powershot A560 has twice, been to a place where it's -50 deg C, and 99% of the atmosphere is below you...and twice performed perfectly!!
This is a really popular hobby in the US - not so much in the UK yet, but it's picking up. It's the closest thing to spaceflight an amateur can get - and it's just the most amazing experience, especially when helped by the brilliant talents of Pegasus and CU Spaceflight!
Attached - an image from about 20 miles above East Anglia in the UK. See if you can spot the cookie.
And best of all - in the spirit of the forum I run ( UMSF ) - I thought it right to lead by example and chuck all the JPG's online as quickly as I could... James Canvin, MER / Phoenix amateur imaging genius - came thru both times with some stunning results at http://nivnac.co.uk/ which take the great images and make them even better!
If you like this sort of thing - there's probably someone, not too far from you, thinking of doing it as well. Try it - you might just get high.
Doug
Fortunately, I met people who do. James Coxon ( http://www.pegasushabproject.org.uk/wiki/doku.php ) invited me to provide the payload for our first joint project - HAPS 1 ( High Altitude Photo System )
His avionics side was quite adventurous. My photo side was a single Canon Powershot A560 running a hacked firmware with a script to take movies and stills.
Long story short - it worked ( although everything went wrong on the day )
http://www.pegasushabproject.org.uk/wiki/doku.php/missions:haps:haps-1 for details. - 32.3km altitude - 900 photos - a hell of chase to get it back.
Amazingly, only 4 days later, a member of the CU Spaceflight team ( http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cuspaceflight/ ) asked if I wanted to take my camera on another flight with their plan for a dawn launch. HELL YES says I - net result - from Thursday at 0700 to Friday at 2300 - I didn't sleep - instead at 0407 on the Friday morning - we launched again. I couldn't follow for the full chase and recovery, but the radio system worked beautifully to the point that the recovery car was less than 1km from the landing point at touch down.
Their paylods were called Nova, and mine is HAPS - so this was Nova 8 / HAPS-D (d for dawn) - and it was a stunner - lot of videos etc here
http://vimeo.com/1628664 Ascent Part 1
http://vimeo.com/1628493 Ascent Part 2
http://vimeo.com/1628497 Ascent Part 3
http://vimeo.com/1628414 Descent
Movies from the HAPS-D camera
http://vimeo.com/1628947 Ascent Part 1
http://vimeo.com/1628809 Ascent Part 2
http://vimeo.com/1628810 Ascent Part 3
http://vimeo.com/1626812 Descent
http://vimeo.com/1628991 All of the still images at 6fps from the HAPS-D camera
http://vimeo.com/1629086 All of the still images at 6fps from the Nova 8 camera
Some of the best stills are here
http://gallery.me.com/djellison#100034
So, my plucky Powershot A560 has twice, been to a place where it's -50 deg C, and 99% of the atmosphere is below you...and twice performed perfectly!!
This is a really popular hobby in the US - not so much in the UK yet, but it's picking up. It's the closest thing to spaceflight an amateur can get - and it's just the most amazing experience, especially when helped by the brilliant talents of Pegasus and CU Spaceflight!
Attached - an image from about 20 miles above East Anglia in the UK. See if you can spot the cookie.
And best of all - in the spirit of the forum I run ( UMSF ) - I thought it right to lead by example and chuck all the JPG's online as quickly as I could... James Canvin, MER / Phoenix amateur imaging genius - came thru both times with some stunning results at http://nivnac.co.uk/ which take the great images and make them even better!
If you like this sort of thing - there's probably someone, not too far from you, thinking of doing it as well. Try it - you might just get high.
Doug
