In my last post, I proposed a partnership between Adler Planetarium, Dayton Diode, and Mach 30 to build and launch open source high altitude balloons in Dayton, OH. I am happy to report the project has a “go”. We have two volunteers from Dayton Diode who want to work on the project, and Ken at Adler Planetarium received “enthusiastic approval” for the Dayton Diode/Mach 30 crew to participate in Adler’s December launch. Ken is also beginning to recruit volunteers in Adler’s Far Horizons project to gather and assemble documentation for posting on Open Design Engine. I will continue to post updates on the project as they become available.

Our friends at Adler Planetarium also asked us for some technical assistance on another project, and I wanted to pass on their request. Ken is working through the development of a project dealing with asteroid occultations and is trying to figure out if there’s a way to hack an off-the-shelf video camera to be able to capture 60fps video and record that video with lossless compression. Ken is familiar with using CHDK to hack digital still cameras, but neither of us have any experience modifying video cameras.

This is where you come in…

Do you or someone you know have experience modifying digital video cameras? We want to hear from you. Leave a comment or send us a message.

ad astra per civitatem