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Camera Decisions

After having found the HAB PDF a few weeks ago, I have been looking over it, and the website www.nearspaceballooning.com, which is where I drew a lot of my inspiration from. I was reading through some of the mission reports from the guy who runs the website, in order to try and find out what kind of cameras would be the best to use. In the PDF it lists some compact point and shoot cameras, as DSLRs are risky with the lenses. I know I want to go for the Canon cameras, as I am able to hack them with the Canon Hack Development Kit, which is what I discovered a few years ago. Basically I will be able to give the camera new abilities through firmware hacking, like interval photography, which is what I’ll need, as well as RAW functionality. Continue reading “Camera Decisions”

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A Website is Born

Yesterday I finished watching Sherlock. It really is a fantastic TV series. It was my procrastinator go-to series and I think I learned a lot from it. Kidding. Well actually, come to think of it, I got inspiration not from Sherlock, but from his friend, John Watson. In the series, Dr. Watson has a blog that he keeps up to date with all of the adventures he and Sherlock have been on. It seemed quite a simple process to set up and after a bit of day dreaming, I thought it would be a good idea to start my own simple website, which would house all of my journal entries along with a gallery for all my photos. Continue reading “A Website is Born”

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Exploring Tracking Methods

I have been looking at different ways of tracking the balloon, mostly by use of radio, as the alternative is using GSM networks, which are not the most reliable in every place in the Western Cape, and it does not span to the upper atmosphere.

I found a few options, ranging from the Spot: Gen 3 tracker, which is a personal tracker for hikers or anything that needs tracking, to DIY radio trackers that can be used with an Arduino microcontroller. However, all of the methods cost more than $150, which is way out of my budget allocation. Continue reading “Exploring Tracking Methods”

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I’m Back!

The plays are done and were a huge success. Although that was two weeks ago… Okay, so I’ve been recovering (procrastinating) for a bit too long now and it’s time to dive back into project mode. I don’t know if this is the same for you, but it is actually really hard to start something. Especially something really big and when you don’t know where to begin. Once you’re in it and you’ve started it’s easy, but getting over the mental hurdle of starting is rather challenging. Continue reading “I’m Back!”