Look, it’s Jersey from space!

Craft & Design Science
Look, it’s Jersey from space!
islandLabsLaunch_1.jpg

Notice tarp taped to the ground, stocking feet, and cotton gloves, all used to keep the fragile balloon intact. Bright tape on the camera-carrying cooler helped them recover the balloon rig.

islandLabsLaunch_2.jpg

To the left can (barely) be seen cellphone and handwarmers, to the right (under the bungies) the camera and handwarmers. The warmers are used to keep the equipment from freezing.

islandLabsLaunch_3.jpg

That’s Long Island to the middle-left, the Hudson River, bottom-middle, and Jersey, middle-right.

And it’s just that easy — or at least the folks at Island Labs make it seem so. John Abella sent us these pics of their recent camera balloon launch. Great job, guys!

Update: John emailed to clarify that Island Labs is, in fact, on Long Island, and the launch, and recovery, were both in NY (launched in Roscoe, recovered in Patterson, New York). My headline was just to make a joke about seeing New Jersey from space, not to imply that the launch was by Jerseynauts. (Er… not that there’s anything wrong with that. Go Jersey!)

Balloon Launch Flickr set

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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