http://www.scientificsonline.com/professional-weather-balloon.html
has weather balloons.
You can use any camera.
A GPS trackers.
Ebay and Amazon can also be great resources for obtaining the necessary supplies.
You will also need a parachute, some rope, and some insulation.
Journey into space with a balloon and duct tapeLaura Pitel It all sounds very Heath Robinson but a digital camera, a GPS device, some duct tape and a balloon were all that was needed to take some breathtaking pictures of Earth that had Nasa calling.
Robert Harrison, 38, used a collection of cheap parts costing £500 to create a balloon-mounted camera that can travel up to 21.7 miles (35km) above the surface of the Earth. The result is a series of pictures taken from a height that only a rocket or weather balloon can reach. Mr Harrison, an IT director from Highburton, West Yorkshire, has launched 12 high-altitude balloons (HABs) since 2008.
The hobby began when he tried taking aerial photos of his house using a remote control helicopter. The experiment failed and Mr Harrison began to research the possibility of using a meteorological balloon to carry a camera. The resulting photographs, which he published online, were so impressive that Nasa has been in touch.
“A guy phoned up who worked for Nasa who was interested in how we took the pictures,” Mr Harrison told The Times. “He wanted to know how the hell we did it. He thought we used a rocket. They said it would have cost them millions of dollars.”
The contraption comprises an ordinary Canon camera mounted on a weather balloon. Using free software downloaded from the internet, Mr Harrison reprogrammed the camera to wake up every five minutes and take eight photographs and a video before switching off for a rest.
A GPS tracker enabled him to follow the balloon’s progress to an accuracy of 10 metres (33ft) and to retrieve it upon its return to Earth. Both the camera and the GPS device are wrapped in loft insulation, which traps the heat given off by the devices and allows them to function in -60C (-76F) temperatures high in the Earth’s atmosphere.
At ground level the helium balloon has a diameter of one metre. As it rises, the air pressure drops and the balloon expands to a diameter of up to 20 metres. Eventually, it pops and the camera carried back down to earth by a small parachute.
Launching the balloon requires permission from the Civil Aviation Authority so Mr Harrison usually travels to one of two approved sites in Cambridge.
Describing his first successful launch, Mr Harrison said: “We were sat in a local pub at the time and I was gobsmacked when I got the images. Seeing the highest pictures was amazing — that’s a lifetime achievement.”
The UK Met Office sends up similar balloons every day to measure a range of weather conditions but Mr Harrison holds the record for the highest HAB flight at 22 miles (35km). He is working on his third model, which has a rotating-lens camera and a rear fixed-lens camera, as well as pressure, temperature and humidity sensors.
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