NZFF

A nice day, sitting in the sun reading a book and munching on my lunch. A glance up into the sky . . . . . . what's that - looks like a tiny Moon (or maybe a large Venus). Maybe it's a balloon. A quick check on Flight Radar24 shows a helium balloon cruising py at 41km distance and 63800ft altitude. Wow that thing must be big to be visible at such a distance. Had to take a photo even though it's too far away to show any detail.

Waited until it came a bit nearer to take the photo - 21km and 63900 feet, moving at 15knots. I'm still impressed with how big it must be - Google suggests 15m wide and 12m high (49x39 feet).




link to balloon image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Google_L...aunch_Event.jpg

Those helium balloon were released from Alexandra airfield between 1 and 2 am this morning saw them on Flight Radar24 as they were being released.

Just found the other two. Quite amazing how they catch the light and stand out like d's b's with the sun shining through them.

Just off the phone with Greg .... There is not one ... but there is three ... Its an invasion I say .. an invasion .... that is firggen cool

scaber wrote:

QUOTE (scaber @ Dec 14 2014,2:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and stand out like d's b's with the sun shining through them.

It s not "d's b's" sounds more like a can off something ... They stick out like 'Dogs Balls' .. but now there are three

Can see one now from here ... heading nne , amazing .

Splitpin wrote:

QUOTE (Splitpin @ Dec 14 2014,3:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can see one now from here ... heading nne , amazing .

Dogs Balls I say .. Dogs Balls .. mind you there are three off them, 'Mr Burns' may have some knowledge on this

Can see 3 visually from YW, strung out N - S at the moment

Cripes Greg .. you may have really started something , the young Chinese couple come to me asking what I was looking at ..... not the same as the Concorde when it use to rip in overhead in the early 2000's tho.

johnkiwi wrote:

QUOTE (johnkiwi @ Dec 14 2014,3:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can see 3 visually from YW, strung out N - S at the moment

It's pretty exciting (in a muted sort of way) to find that these are actually visible to the naked eye. I wouldn't have bothered looking as I didn't think it would be at all possible. Good to see that others have also verified them so I'm not just suffering from some sort of psychological manifestation!

There were five released between 1 and 2 am the other 2 one is just north of Lake Hawea and the other one last seen out to sea east of Timaru

scaber wrote:

QUOTE (scaber @ Dec 14 2014,3:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good to see that others have also verified them so I'm not just suffering from some sort of psychological manifestation!

No no , we are just saying that and confirming they weren't really there only for your mental health.

Nah, serious... It is amazing to be able to view them at the 60,000 feet plus if only due to the sun, today we can track them via PC .. called Google Balloons , when I was growing up - yeah a Kid I still picked them up, guess today with all this techno the good old eyeball is not needed.

Took a wide angle view to show the three at once. See if you can find them in the first photo before checking in the 2nd one. These shots were taken with a 14mm wide angle lens compared with the previous one taken on 650mm so they are a harder to see here than real life was, though I have increased the local contrast to make them a bit more visible here than what there were like straight out of the camera - it took me about 10 mins to find the 3 of them on the straight camera files (you won't take that lone I hope!)

I've made the images quite large to make it a bit easier for you and cropped out about 2/3rds of the frame so you have less area to search. You will have to scroll sideways to see the whole width of the photo.

Excellent work Greg ..... can still see 2 just hanging there .
It was interesting to note an Airbus on the Dunedin / Welly run streaming vapor overhead not long ago .... and he was 30,000 ft below the balloons .

Splitpin wrote:

QUOTE (Splitpin @ Dec 14 2014,5:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Excellent work Greg ..... can still see 2 just hanging there .
It was interesting to note an Airbus on the Dunedin / Welly run streaming vapor overhead not long ago .... and he was 30,000 ft below the balloons .

Thanks Marty Yes, I saw the Airbus too and had much the same thought - I watched the video yesterday of the two seater U2 (2 Seat TU-2 Trainer)
video where they overfly a commercial airliner around 30000' below them so this struck a similar sort of note with me. In case the link I followed wasn't on NZFF here it is (possibly again!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJoMDq4AyLc

It quite amazing with the U2 , at alt , they only have a 12MPH threshold going over its limited speed it will break up and below it will fall out off the sky, this was one theory why Gary Francis Powers was shot down simply by a near miss ... you would not want to make the U2 out of the same material, I'd doubt if another 10,000 fleet would have hide it.

Another thought, with all the techno today, wouldn't it be brilliant getting live feed from a camera on one off those balloons, that would glue people to the monitors.

Paranoia would set in ... big brother is spying on us

johnkiwi wrote:

QUOTE (johnkiwi @ Dec 15 2014,8:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Paranoia would set in ... big brother is spying on us

Only for the the ones who have something to hide, just think ... we would be able to check up on the Johns of this world ... the Banks and the Keys

Hah! Or see who hasn't kept the grass in front of their house neatly trimmed...

johnkiwi wrote:

QUOTE (johnkiwi @ Dec 15 2014,8:41 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hah! Or see who hasn't kept the grass in front of their house neatly trimmed...

, Now smooth as ... Greg stopped through Yesterday to check out the second only to the 'Cardboard Cathedral' must see in Christchurch .... no chance you getting a stack of hay off this stretch of grass