[TriLUG] NCNearSpace balloon launch tomorrow morning 9/26

Alan Porter porter at trilug.org
Sat Sep 25 13:57:34 EDT 2010


Earlier this month, Tanner Lovelace and Jonathan Trappe gave us an
excellent presentation on their project to launch a balloon into "near
space" and take pictures of the curvature of the Earth.  They told the
tale of how they launched two balloons on August 22nd and how they
managed to recover the capsules and some spectacular photos.

At the end of their presentation, Tanner and Jonathan mentioned that
they would be doing more launches later.  That date has arrived.

The NCNearSpace team's third launch will be tomorrow, Sunday, September
26th at Horse Shoe Farm Park in Wake Forest NC.  The team will assemble
at 8am, and will hopefully launch by 9am.

Horse Shoe Farm Park
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=35.883835,-78.537397+(launch)&z=13

Spectators are welcome to come and watch.  But if 8am is too early for
you, and you'd rather follow the chase online, we have a few ways you
can watch the progress.

(1) GOOGLE MAP

We have a Google Map that will show the current location and the path of
the balloon.  It is updated in (close to) real time, with data points
every 10 minutes or so.

http://AlanPorter.com/spot - formatted to fit a phone
http://AlanPorter.com/spot?w=800&h=600 - larger, for a PC

(2) APRS

If you are into ham radio and APRS, we also have a link to the APRS
network, which will show the locations of the balloon and the chase
vehicles.  The balloon will be using the callsign "KR4JB-11".  You do
not have to be a ham to follow us on this site.

APRS map with balloon and chase vehicles
http://aprs.fi/?call=KR4JB-11,KR4JB-7,KB4TYE

(3) TWITTER

Follow @ncnearspace on Twitter for updates on balloon position, as well
as comments from the launch/chase teams.

Twitter feed
http://twitter.com/ncnearspace

(4) WEB SITE

Other news about the group and the launch should be available at their
web site,
http://www.ncnearspace.org/


Alan





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