Weather balloon III was a great success. Only two minor snags, one of which worked in our favor in the end. The first was some difficulty with the regulator of our helium tank, in which slight panic ensued, although it was quickly rectified. The second was that our cut-down device, to separate the balloon from the payload just before burst, failed. The benefit of said device is to keep balloon fragments from tangling in the parachute. However our ascent rate was a little slow, and the cut-down device would have freed the payload at only 80-90k feet, when the balloon could reach nearly 120k. Since the device failed, we have better shots, although the balloon came down 45 minutes late, when we had nearly given up hope.

The goal of this launch was to capture fall colors, a moon rise, and sunset. Done, done, and done. We also captured city lights of Chicago; we were unsure the camera could adjust for this. Most of the photos were blurry in the low light, but a couple were acceptable.

Select Photos

Photos of all three balloons by R Liegel

In addition, we included a video camera. It had to lay on its side for space reasons, and it struggled in low light a bit, but it gives us a starting point to improve upon.

Launch from ground

Launch from balloon camera

81-93k feet altitude

Weather Balloon v3.0 is underway and slated for launch October 9, 2011. Our goal with this launch is to capture fall colors, a moonrise, and a sunset. Our new addition to the project this time includes a strobe for flight/recovery at night. Should weather and payload recovery cooperate, I may have some new and exciting images to share soon.

I’m also in the process of adding social media integration to the site in order to keep all of my photos and projects in one place, rather than scattering them throughout every brand of social media and then trying to keep track of them. The benefit of course will that users  will be able to interact and comment on them using that platform should they choose.