Amazing DIY balloon project,with pics.

Have a look at this cracking DIY high altitude balloon with cameras,it reached over 30 000 meters!

www.natrium42.com...

Great photographs for a home made project!
Videos too,take a while to work for me though.




[edit on 26-10-2007 by Silcone Synapse]

[edit on 26-10-2007 by Silcone Synapse]

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


What is the point ?

we have seen pictures like that already,.....


this is a waste of our time...you send ballons to take photos of clouds...

we have satellittes which can take photos.

we can send awacs to take snaps of ground.

we can attack enemies from planes...


balloonns are easily puntured and can be dangerous exploding in a massive firebball like the uss hinderburg.

i hope the FAA arrest you for endangering airplanes and public safty.

reply to post by esecallum



Wow, really esecallum ? You don't have hobbies?

Anyway, I think it was an inspired project.

Like the dude said,

In this project, many of my interest and knowledge areas came together. Also, I have verified that the Earth is indeed round and that space is black.

Worth it for the pictures, alone , IMO.

Thanks for the link, SS.

Need any weather balloons? Contact me for more information

No, just kidding, I would probly get in trouble if some of our weather balloons went missing. Might send a camera up next time we launch one and post it here.

Great pics by the way

After watching the video and getting dizzy ,

yea, I've got a question for ya, Oz'....

What are your thoughts on making the camera platform more stable?

Maybe shorten up the tether, or attach the camera, directly to the balloon?

reply to post by Jbird


I would suggest using a length of pvc pipe with a horizontal length of wood at the bottom with the cameras attached which will also keep it more stable (the heavier the wood, the better). I would also use several cameras for each angle anchored to the wood. I mean u will still get swaying from side to side but the ridgedness of the pvc pipe would hopefully stop the cameras from spinning. And yes, the tether would have to be shorter but the only problem with that is that the balloon expands a great deal when it gets up higher due to the low pressure and they dont always expand evenly, so a puncture is possible.

I would also use several cameras for each angle anchored to the wood.

Good point.

Is this the typical weather balloon, you use?
Totex Sounding Balloon

So Oz' , do you launch regularly?

Professional or amateur ?

reply to post by Jbird


Yeah totex is our supplier of balloons. And Iam a proffesional launcher, working for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. We launch balloons 4 times a day, which means 2 balloons per shift as we work 12 hours shifts, with 24 hour coverage. Two balloons carry radiosondes for measurement of humidty, pressure and temperature and also wind direction and speed. The other two just measure the winds, we use 200gm balloons for those and 800gm balloons for the other flights. Occasionally we do launch balloons to measure thunderstorm ozone (I live in the tropics) and we use 1200gm balloons for those as the thunderstorms up here can reach up to 40,000m or over 100,000ft

Wow, interesting gig, mate.

Do you do active retrievals, or get returned equipment?

Got any pics of your typical rigs?

reply to post by Jbird


Nah we dont do retrievals, there really isnt any point because they usually land in the ocean from where Iam. Occasionally we get calls from people when they have had them land in the backyard but we juts let them keep it.

We had an ocean buoy stolen once. A farmer picked it up washed up on a beach and took it home. We noticed something suspicious when it was giving ocean data from 300km inland. So we had to go and get it. So if an occean buoy rocks up, prob a good idea not to take it home

I probably got some pics around. Next time i launch a balloon I will take pics while Im setting it up and when I launch it and post them here

Hey thanks for the replies Jbird and Ozweatherman!
Pretty good balloon pics and vids for a DIY effort I thought.

That sounds like an interesting job you have Oz.

wow...amazing diy project

If the balloon could be rigged to carry a drop-launch R/C model glider and released at 30Km you'd have a potential recon range of hundreds of sq. miles

reply to post by OzWeatherman

We noticed something suspicious when it was giving ocean data from 300km inland.

... too funny.

Next time i launch a balloon I will take pics while Im setting it up and when I launch it and post them here

Cool . Thanks in advance, for the effort.