It's nice to see that the global recession hasn't kept artists from low-budget innovation.
The Atlantic's Daily Dish turned us on to a cinematographer in Oxnard, CA, who built a homemade high-altitude weather balloon with two second-hand digital cameras he bought on Ebay (for only $45) that captured beautiful video images from 24 miles above the Earth's surface.
DIY-tinkerer Colin Rich built his device with styrofoam and duct-tape to prevent the cameras from freezing at temperatures below -50F.
The balloon eventually burst at around 125,000 feet, which triggered a parachute to deploy, allowing the device to float safely down to land in Santa Paula, 15 miles away from where it was launched.
WATCH:
Pacific Star II from Colin Rich on Vimeo.
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