Wouldn't this be more appropriate on reddit's IAMA sub?
I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything
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Re: I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything
#12Wouldn't this be more appropriate on reddit's IAMA sub?
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The site is a complete rip of a subreddit.
Re: I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything
#13Maybe it's my monitor, but I can't really see anything inside the circle in the Venus photo. This is a cool project though.
Re: I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything
#14Nice idea and cool pictures. Too bad instead of HD they are only in micro format and embedded into a flash. Or did I just not find them on the site?
Re: I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything
#15"BTW, our balloon just missed a JetBlue aircraft while on its way to near-space. (It was still safe as we notified nearby airports of our launch)." Does that statement scare the bejesus out of anyone else?
You can see the plane in the pictures on their website. It appears to be within a mile or two of the balloon. Notifying the airports is a good practice, and making the box radar-reflective is going out of their way to help make sure nothing bad happens.
Re: I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything
#16Remind me of this one with the weather balloon and the iPhone:
Re: I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything
#17"BTW, our balloon just missed a JetBlue aircraft while on its way to near-space. (It was still safe as we notified nearby airports of our launch)." Does that statement scare the bejesus out of anyone else?
Actually you need to notify the FAA not "near by" airports.
Re: I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything
#18Reminds me of the father and son who got to 30km (and recovery!) with nothing but an iPhone tied to a weather balloon - the video is amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtXquYhY7wo
As others have said, sure as hell looks like space to me.
Re: I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything
#19"BTW, our balloon just missed a JetBlue aircraft while on its way to near-space. (It was still safe as we notified nearby airports of our launch)." Does that statement scare the bejesus out of anyone else?
No. Define "just missed". Flying across country (Florida to Washington), I saw another plane flying in the other direction. The plane looked and felt like it was right next to us, like .. hundreds of yards apart. Cross-country planes do this all the time, so far as I can gather. [edit: fixed typo, added ending to sentence]
Probably fair to say that planes are under pilot control whereas the balloon was at the mercy of the winds, right?