Viewing Earth from Space … Almost
Posted in: General, Photos, Today's ChiliThis article was written on August 24, 2007 by CyberNet.
Ever wondered what the Earth looks like from 117,597 feet above the ground? Yeah, me neither. But the photos you’re going to see here gives you a glimpse of what the Earth looks like from more than 22.27 miles away and it’s pretty awesome. Especially knowing the pictures were taken from a helium balloon which was launched on August 11, 2007 by some guys in Alberta, Canada.
It’s hard to believe that these guys attached a Nikon Coolpix P2 digital camera (with a parachute attached) to the helium balloon, but they did. Along with the balloon was a Byonics Micro Trak 300 APRS tracking device so that the guys on the ground could track where the camera was going to land. Each minute, the camera snapped a photo and two and a half hours later, the balloon popped. The parachute opened, and down came the camera with all of the great pictures!
This wasn’t the first time that this team of guys tried to launch a helium balloon high above the Earth. On two previous dates in 2006, they tried the same thing but weren’t successful. The third time is definitely the charm in this situation. It’s amazing how far away the clouds look – it almost looks like they’re as far away as what they’d be standing on the ground looking up.
They’ve got a site put together with a lot of great pictures which you can find here. It appears as though the site is having issues right now, so I’ve taken a screenshot of it which you can view here.
Pretty neat, isn’t it?
Source: Gizmodo
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