I went walking the dogs yesterday late and when we got back to the house, my wife noticed this in the sky:
It was not dark yet, not even close, but it appears that way in the pic. The picture was taken with an old Kodak digital 5.0 camera looking thru the eyepiece of a Topcon GTS3B (30x) at 8:25:46 pm central dst. The sun had set but was still shining on the balloon. Sunset according to my weather app (storm) was 8:26.
This morning I saw it on the news so I found the track and the purpose,
https://www.csbf.nasa.gov/map/convpsn/PSNconvgps1598p.htm
Best I can tell from the track, it was about 10 miles away.
Anyone in the San Angelo area might want to track it until the sun sets and makes it more visible.
Well it looks like they took down the tracker but this is a screen shot from this morning. Last I looked, it was still wandering around between San Angelo and Big Spring. 
Google "palestine balloon base bettii" for more info
https://www.google.com/search?q=palestine+balloon+base+bettii&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
JaRo, post: 431846, member: 292 wrote: This morning I saw it on the news so I found the track and the purpose,
https://www.csbf.nasa.gov/map/convpsn/PSNconvgps1598p.htm
404 - File or directory not found.
Link didn't work.
R.J. Schneider, post: 431912, member: 409 wrote: 404 - File or directory not found.
Link didn't work.
Yea they took down the tracking website while I was putting the post together but the screenshot with the map is pretty close to the last location I saw. It was actually wandering around in one location. I tried finding another source but no luck. I think they brought the balloon down after that. By the time I figured out there was not another source, I couldn't get back in to delete the link.
BETTII for Balloon Experimental Twin Telescope for Infrared Interferometry ( I had to look it up ). I'm still not sure what they were looking for. Haven't had time to study on it yet.
James
Not about this launch specifically but this is an interesting article about the NASA facility in Palestine:
http://texasalmanac.com/topics/science/scientific-balloons-texas
Dang, I wasn't looking at the right time or I mighta seen this. Maybe.
I found on their facebook page that they "won't cut down until 8 AM (Texas time), as that's when we'll have a good landing zone". I guess that meant they started the decent about 8 this morning and was probably on the ground by the time I posted. The decent may have been when it appeared to be wandering different directions. It would have been visible for many miles at daylight. It gets about 10 times bigger at the upper altitudes.
James
As a surveyor, it is actually possible that one of us could be standing in their "good landing zone' and see this thing come down in what they thought was the middle of nowhere. Now that would be cool to see!
Or..................directly on top of you.
I don't think they have floogle horns installed on those things.
I love that pic!
I checked my instrument this morning and the double vertical hairs below the center point are 1 minute apart. Zooming in on the picture, I figure the balloon is about 3.1 minutes of angle from left to right edge.
Sin of that is 0.00090175
1/0.00090175=1108.95
So for every 1 foot diameter of the balloon, the distance is about 1100 feet.
50 foot diameter would be about 55,000 feet distance or about 10 1/2 miles.
Question:
What is your best guess for the diameter of the balloon in the picture.
James
JaRo, post: 432084, member: 292 wrote: Question:
What is your best guess for the diameter of the balloon in the picture.
Isn't that a function of altitude, according to the Palestine/NASA link you posted ?
You are correct, as the balloon rises, it expands to 10 times the size according to their website. I was trying to find the height of the balloon and use that to calculate the width. So far, no luck. I'm just amazed I could get such a picture from something 10 miles away just by holding the camera up to the eyepiece. I have never been up close to one of those balloons and have no idea of the scale.
James
I bet that hurt!
facebook page:
the may 29 and 30 post show several surveying instruments.
James
