Big Helium Balloons & Aerial Photography?

Big Helium Balloons & Aerial Photography?

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Discussion

MiniMan64

Original Poster:

16,862 posts

189 months

Monday 23rd May 2016
quotequote all
Bit random this one so bear with me...

At work I have come into possession of a large latex balloon (a 1600g?) and a Go Pro camera which I believe, given there was a parachute in the box as well, was intended to be the basis of a project to take pictures in space. It's being living under a colleagues desk for 2 years and while I'm not sure I'm confident enough to attempt the original mission, someone has suggested we could have a go at some aerial photography of our building and local area?

My question I guess is does anyone have any experience in this area? I believe the balloon is about 2m across so some rouhg fag packet calculations say I need about 3-4 litres of helium, how much will that cost?

Is the rest just inflate balloon, tie camera to it, tie string to it and away you go?

55palfers

5,892 posts

163 months

Monday 23rd May 2016
quotequote all
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3...

Try a couple of these.
Don't overfill the balloon on the ground as the helium will expand as it goes higher

Good luck!

Simpo Two

85,147 posts

264 months

Monday 23rd May 2016
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How do you get it down/the camera back?

eybic

9,212 posts

173 months

Monday 23rd May 2016
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The balloon will pop when it reaches a certain height, you then have to track the camera and collect it providing it hasn't been broken in its fall. There's a PHer that does this kind of thing, have a look in the photography section.

ETA: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=102...

geeks

9,121 posts

138 months

Monday 23rd May 2016
quotequote all
Would love to come and follow that along/help out with planning. There is a load of info here: http://sentintospace.com/helpful-stuff/ PM if you want someone to help out biggrin

MiniMan64

Original Poster:

16,862 posts

189 months

Monday 23rd May 2016
quotequote all
eybic said:
The balloon will pop when it reaches a certain height, you then have to track the camera and collect it providing it hasn't been broken in its fall. There's a PHer that does this kind of thing, have a look in the photography section.

ETA: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=102...
I believe the original intent was to send the camera into space as part of small payload that included a GPS tracker but given we're in Devon there is a large possibility of a sea landing. That along with other reasons means this time we may go for a tethered balloon so we can easily retrieve it.