So over the last year I've been working on a project, called the "Wyvern in Space Project" to launch a High Altitude Balloon carrying my school mascot into near-space, and a little under two weeks ago we had a successful launch and recovery!
The purpose of this was to promote school spirit, as who doesn't want to see their mascot in space, to gather some really interesting temperature/pressure/speed data, and to, of course, take some pictures of the earth from an incredibly compelling angle (we ended up reaching almost 16 miles!!).
Though not technically astrophotography, I'm extremely proud of how these pictures came out, and I think they are very interesting to see.
The camera used are the GoPro Hero 2 (forward facing camera with mascot) and the GoPro Hero 4 (downward facing) they were gathering video footage from which I have selected some of my favorite frames. The entire 2 hour flight was filmed by both camera and is currently being editing into a 10~ minute video by and far more experienced video editor, my friend Tim (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBuckProductions) I will likely link to the whole video on this blog as well.
P.S. The mascot is a Wyvern, a dragon like being which has back legs and wings, that spits acid.
Hope you enjoy!
This picture was captured right after the burst of the balloon, it captures the parachute, radar reflector, the burst balloon, the earth, and the extra "sparkles" on the wyvern is frost (it reached below -50 degrees Celsius!)
This picture speaks for itself, it really gives you a scale of just how far up 16 miles really is. I love the way the atmosphere appears to glow in this shot.
This picture was caught by pure chance. When the balloon burst the payload jerked up and the downward facing camera, caught what might be my favorite moment. The balloon in tatters, but the little smudge in the bottom left corner of the picture is the recently released gaseous Helium.
Thank you to everyone that helped make this project possible, I hope you enjoy the picture, and I will post the link to the video on this page as soon as it comes out (even if its not technically astrophotography)
- Connor
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