An amazing amateur achievement. Robert Harrison managed to take extraordinary images of Earth using a cheap digital camera in a box suspended from a small helium-filled balloon. He started off just wanting an aerial photo of his property but went much higher, up to 35 kilometres, capturing the atmosphere and curvature of the Earth. A GPS device on the camera let him find where it landed after the balloon burst high in the atmosphere and a parachute deployed. Total cost about £200 ($405 NZD).



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source: data archive