Amateur Photographers’s Space Photos Intrigue NASA

By Queuebot in Science & Tech on Mar 29, 2010 at 6:52 pm

[YouTube - Link]

Robert Harrison launches weather balloons armed with a camera and a GPS locator and takes fantastic pictures of the earth from the upper atmosphere. The father of three was contacted by NASA after taking space pictures with his homemade device, which cost a small fraction of what the space agency pays to take similar photographs. Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

Tags: amateur, nasa, space photos

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lannaxe96
Mar 29th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
That’s brilliant. wow
Max Power
Mar 29th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
He’s prolly going to have a nice passive income now for shutting up about how much money the NASA is blowing up.
Julie Ellis
Mar 29th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
There’s a whole world of amateur scientific ballooning. Some is done by individuals like this one, and some is done by schools and universities. In the USA, NASA’s Columbia center, in Palestine, TX is one major hub of the high-cost type of work, and there are many programs supported by the states’ Space Grant Consortia. Many have amazing photos and videos. Google it!
w w
Mar 29th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
When I read the description “Father of three”, I thought this was going to be another Colorado balloon boy story. But this guy is actually smart about his space exploration experiments. Way to go, dude.
Ko
Mar 29th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
People have been doing this for years, I’ve no idea why the media is making a big hullabaloo about it now.
buzzbo
Mar 30th, 2010 at 12:42 am
The UK comments on the Times Online article are quite amusing.
Wes
Mar 30th, 2010 at 2:12 am
Kudos to the guy, but it has annoyed me a bit that he’s received so much media attention. People have been doing this for years, and for even less money.

Here’s just a sampling: http://hackaday.com/2009/09/19/high-altitude-balloons/
Wes
Mar 30th, 2010 at 2:19 am
Oh, and there’s an extra S in the title.
Jollyboy
Mar 30th, 2010 at 2:31 am
@Wes

I just watched the video in your link and I can see why this new guy gets all the attention. That is the worst video quality imaginable, it’s not just that it isn’t worth posting on the internet its not even worth its own makers time in watching it. 10/10 for effort 0/10 for results.

Now go and look at the images captured by the dude from Huddersfield. Spot the difference?
Sean
Mar 30th, 2010 at 2:58 am
Err, this isn’t that special. I am also pretty sure that whole NASA bit is just fake…

I know this because I am in a class that does this every semester. We have gotten great pictures in the past(http://www.flickr.com/photos/nebarnix/sets/72157607393699828/), and we will hopefully be sending up an actually camcorder in a few weeks. We are funded by NASA, so they know about this.

I guess it’s good that people are fascinated by this, but as I said, this is commonplace. The media is blowing this out of proportion.
BikerRay
Mar 30th, 2010 at 5:38 am
Hams have been doing this for years (mostly with radio links, not for pretty pictures). See http://www.eoss.org/ for example. Nothing new with this guy.
And what’s with “Photographers’s” in the header?
Norman
Mar 30th, 2010 at 9:21 am
I agree 100% with Ko and Wes. This is nothing new, and he does not deserve any recognition. Amateur scientists have been doing this for years, some even capturing more stunning images than his (such as students at University of Nevada). In fact, many people have done it cheaper than Robert.

As for Sean, I agree with him, too. But the NASA bit is true. However, it’s just by chance that NASA stumbled upon his photos. It could have happened to anyone else that has been doing weather balloon near-space photography for the past 20 or so years.
LisaL
Mar 30th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Well I thought it was very cool and I could care less if he’s getting attention for it while others before him don’t.
xoxoxoBruce
Mar 30th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
“A guy phoned up who worked for Nasa who was interested in how we took the pictures…”

A guy phoned up who SAID HE worked for Nasa who was interested in how we took the pictures…
Wes
Mar 30th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
@Jollyboy

Er … so you watched the one video and completely ignored all the links in the article to all the other people who’ve done it in the past?

And as I said, even that is just a sampling.

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