Super Pressure Research Balloon

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Hi all,

Didn't know where to put this - kind of between local and deep sky I suppose. I spotted this last night at sunset and followed it for 2 hours.

I would be interested to know who launched it. It looks very much like a NASA model as seen here. It has 36 ribs like the NASA balloon. These balloons can get up to 40 km high and wander around for very long periods of over a month or more.

I have images and a movie here

Richard

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Quite interesting. That one would have tricked me.

[DavidU (Dave)]

Very cool indeed !

[anthony.tony]

Different- Tony

[h0ughy (David)]

wow what a find. i thought i saw a weather balloon this morning over newcastle

[koputai (Jason)]

Any idea how high the one you saw was? (Sorry, the u-toob video won't load for me).

There are a bunch of Google balloons floating around the Earth, which seem to be sitting at around 165,000 ft most of the time.

Cheers,
Jason.

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Originally Posted by koputai

Any idea how high the one you saw was? (Sorry, the u-toob video won't load for me).

There are a bunch of Google balloons floating around the Earth, which seem to be sitting at around 165,000 ft most of the time.

Cheers,
Jason.

Hi Jason,
I think you are right about the Google balloons I had a look at the Loon Project on Google and it's almost if not exactly identical to my shots.

I will break out the calculator and do some rough trig to see if I can't get a height. I'll chase up the diameter of the Loon balloons and take it from there.


Thanks for the information!
Richard

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Hi all,

Did some trig on this and calculated the following:


Assumption:

Diameter of balloon = 15m as per project Loon dimensions.


I calculated the angular size of the balloon by comparing it to known angular separations of stars in the same field of view.

Thus,

Height at Zenith = 24.5 km

Straight line distance from my home (Clarence Town NSW) at farthest observed point = 59km,

which put it somewhere over the Hunter Valley vineyards south west of Cessnock by the time I ceased watching it.


Richard

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Originally Posted by bkm2304

Height at Zenith = 24.5 km

Straight line distance from my home (Clarence Town NSW) at farthest observed point = 59km,

which put it somewhere over the Hunter Valley vineyards south west of Cessnock by the time I ceased watching it.

A handy calculator of "Distance To Horizon" found here shows this to be 560km at the height of 24.5km.

This means that looking north from the balloon you could glimpse the lights of Brisbane, and looking south you could see the lights of Albury.

Richard

[koputai (Jason)]

Well done Richard, interesting stuff.

I'm yet to spot a Loon balloon, but I have this other little by-hobby
of trying to spot aircraft as far away as I can. The good thing about
Sydney is the number of flights that go straight over at high altitude
enroute between other cities, such as Singapore to Auckland, or even
Brisbane to Launceston.

The ones coming from QLD to Tas I can spot when they're up around
Wollombi (90 Km away), and QF93 from Melbourne to LA I've spotted
131 Km away, mainly because it's usually higher (38,000 ft) and out over the ocean.

I know, pretty sad, but it is interesting!

Cheers,
Jason.

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Originally Posted by koputai

Well done Richard, interesting stuff.

I'm yet to spot a Loon balloon, but I have this other little by-hobby
of trying to spot aircraft as far away as I can. The good thing about
Sydney is the number of flights that go straight over at high altitude
enroute between other cities, such as Singapore to Auckland, or even
Brisbane to Launceston.

The ones coming from QLD to Tas I can spot when they're up around
Wollombi (90 Km away), and QF93 from Melbourne to LA I've spotted
131 Km away, mainly because it's usually higher (38,000 ft) and out over the ocean.

I know, pretty sad, but it is interesting!

Cheers,
Jason.

Man after my own heart, Jason! I use Flight Radar 24 Pro to identify the silver streaks way out west going on the Melbourne or Adelaide to Brisbane route or international routes. My wife shakes her head - but I tell her at a couple of bucks for the App, its way, way, way cheaper than her nags!

Where we live on a hill I have been able to identify jets at 30-38,000 feet over Mudgee - they are only a few degrees above the horizon.
I have put a friend onto the joys of FRP - he is now retired but was one of QANTAS's most experienced long haul pilots for four decades - he's addicted. Funny how small things can amuse so easily!


Richard.

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

Excellent captures!