Watching an eclipse from the ground is pretty fun. Depending on where you live, you might even get a decent view. But what if you wanted a truly unique vantage point? You could replicate the work of [Tarik Agcayazi] and [kemfic], who set about filming the recent eclipse from an altitude of 80,000 feet.
The duo didn’t rent a high-performance aircraft from the US military. Instead, they relied on a high-altitude balloon carrying a glider with a camera payload. The idea was for the balloon to go up, and have the camera capture the eclipse. Then, it would be released so that it could glide back home in controlled flight. However, time constraints made that too hard. Instead, they simplified to a parachute recovery method.
The project video covers the development process, the balloon launch itself, and of course, the filming of the eclipse. High altitude balloon launches are stressful enough, but having a short eclipse as a target made everything even more difficult. But that just makes things more exciting!
The project builds on earlier work from the duo that we discussed back in 2017.
>tech bros from the bay go to midwest
>litter in national forest
What a feat! Hats off to these gents.
Awesome project.
Can’t wait for the “launching balloons should be illegal you are going to crash airliners” commenters. Always a gas.
Any description anywhere of how it was done? Link goes to a one-line post on X.
Link to the video doesn’t have any description or link to anything useful. (A spotify playlist is not useful in this context)