Project Horus (projecthorus.org/) is a High Altitude Balloon Project operating out of Adelaide, South Australia.
This footage was taken during the Horus project team's high altitude helium balloon flight on the 26th of February 2011 - designated Horus 15. This was the 15th balloon launch for the project since it's inception in February 2010.
This flight carried three payloads - a 14MHz HF telemetry test package, a HD video camera (GoPro HERO) and the standard 433MHz flight computer and telemetry system.
It was a rather overcast day which made for quite an interesting flight. The balloon passed through several cloud bands, encountered rain, hail and then lots of sunshine as it climbed above the weather! The high altitude winds were very gusty and very strong too - which may have contributed to the earlier than expected balloon burst (the flight only reached 20km), along with the passing through the cloud stacks during ascent.
Key moments to look out for in this video include:
01:20 - penetration of the first cloud band
01:31 - Flight between two cloud bands
01:43 - Exiting the top of the cloud stack
02:32 - Balloon Burst @ 20.4km
02:56 - Balloon Debris after burst - floats about in front of the camera
03:04 - Ice Crystals as the balloon re-enters the top of the cloud stack
03:15 - Rain on the camera enclosure as it decends through a rain shower
The video has been significantly reprocessed following this flight as the camera suffered some exposure overload problems due to the reflected light from the cloud tops. After Gamma correction and then supplementary colour correction using Colorista II from Red Giant Software, the images have mostly been rescued.
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Camera: GoPRO HD HERO
Editing: Adobe Premiere CS5 (PC)
Colour Correction: Colorista II (Red Giant Software)
Music by: Paul S. - "Flying Time"
Licensed under: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/be/
Available from: jamendo.com/
