Big Helium Balloons & Aerial Photography?

Big Helium Balloons & Aerial Photography?

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MiniMan64

Original Poster:

16,929 posts

190 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?

MiniMan64

Original Poster:

16,929 posts

190 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.