08-25-10 – The Book of Armaments

Forums Forums Farktography General Chat This week’s contest 08-25-10 – The Book of Armaments

Viewing 15 posts - 136 through 150 (of 174 total)
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  • #31598
    orionid
    Participant

    I can see it now…. “So I got bored one day and tied my camera to a kite string…..” “So I got bored one day and stuffed my camera into a carboard tube filled with half a pound of potassium nitrate….” “So I got bored one day and bolted my camera to a shotgun…” “So I got bored one day and put the wrong film in the wrong camera…” “So I got bored one day and cut up a soda can…” etc, etc.

    See, I’d like to hear a bit of the story behind some of those kind of shots. Surely your first one didn’t turn out and you had to make revisions. What worked/didn’t? How did your end result differ from your original vision?

    If nothing else, my first question on some shots is “what were you on and where can I get some?” that allowed you to come up with that idea! 😆

    I see your point 😀

    #31599
    Kestrana
    Participant

    #31600
    ravnostic
    Participant

    Is it Orionid‘s natural fashion sense that the cables match the shirt, or did Kestrana help with the coordination?

    The world will never know.

    #31601
    Kestrana
    Participant

    I doubt the world really cares much 😛

    #31602
    ravnostic
    Participant

    Depends what part of the world.

    Perhaps only my little corner of it. 😯

    #31603
    orionid
    Participant

    Coincidence, as evidenced by the combination of aloha shirt and camouflage shorts.

    #31604
    ravnostic
    Participant

    What? You never heard of Pearl Harbor?

    #31605
    orionid
    Participant
    #31606
    ravnostic
    Participant

    I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that back in the day, nobody there was wearing spandex. However, fatigues and flower prints were probably seen fairly often. Damned if I can find any pictures to confirm that (other than the semi-recent movie, of which I give zero credence.)

    I call it a fashion match, based upon historical (though unverified) precedence.

    #31607
    CauseISaidSo
    Participant

    orionid, I think I remember you mentioning Nuts & Volts magazine at some point. If I remember correctly and you read/know of it, do you read the near-space column? It’s a guy that uses weather balloons to loft experiment/measuring/photographic packages up to about 110K feet. He gets some pretty cool images where you can see the curvature of the earth.

    #31608
    orionid
    Participant

    orionid, I think I remember you mentioning Nuts & Volts magazine at some point. If I remember correctly and you read/know of it, do you read the near-space column? It’s a guy that uses weather balloons to loft experiment/measuring/photographic packages up to about 110K feet. He gets some pretty cool images where you can see the curvature of the earth.

    I haven’t actually seen that magazine since I was six. My dad used to get it, but I was banned from it when I tried following the directions in an article about building a home-made plasma ball and caught the carpet on fire. I was simultaneously banned from MacGyver and Mr. Wizard.

    I have seen some pretty creative high altitude shots, though. My google-fu has failed to find the original links I saw, but I did just uncover a variety of people who have repeated the weather-balloon camera projects on cheaper and cheaper budgets, to as low as $150. The first couple I saw were in the $750-1500 range. Hmmm….. Winter project, perhaps?

    #31609
    CauseISaidSo
    Participant

    Ha! How’s a boy supposed to learn his science if there aren’t a few fires or explosions involved?

    The guy who writes the column is named L. Paul Verhage. I found links to a PDF book he wrote and several older N&V columns on the Parallax website here: http://www.parallax.com/tabid/567/Default.aspx

    He’s also got several videos of space launches on YouTube. Here’s one of his earlier ones that goes to 85K: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPhXCxYEKA0

    The only thing about this is that I think you need LOTS of wide open space (he does a lot of his launches in Kansas and Idaho, I think). There are also a few FAA rules that I don’t remember exactly (weight limits, distances from commercial air traffic, stuff like that). But it does sound like fun stuff to play with, doesn’t it?

    If nothing else, you could get some pointers from his articles about how he tracks his payloads so you don’t end up losing another camera. 😉

    #31610
    Kestrana
    Participant

    There are radio transmitters you can get to track payloads even in the small rockets that we fly but they cost $. Same with the altimeter. Although you would at some point you do lose enough rockets to equal the cost of the transmitter, the one with the camera in it that was lost recently came down in the neighbor’s pond if I remember correctly, and so would probably have been toast even if it was recovered.

    #31611
    caradoc
    Participant

    Ha! How’s a boy supposed to learn his science if there aren’t a few fires or explosions involved?

    My friends and relatives say I’m not allowed to give copies of this to their kids any more.

    #31612
    CauseISaidSo
    Participant

    Well, I was thinking more about the one he lost to the kite. You’re right, I don’t think any tracker is going to help if your payload deposits itself in your neighbor’s pond!

    This website, http://www.byonics.com, is where the near space guy got his tracking device. They have kits for $33 or $98 with GPS. I’m not sure what equipment you need to receive the signal, though, so that would also be another added cost.

Viewing 15 posts - 136 through 150 (of 174 total)
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