back to article My, my Pi, did it spy ya? Bye, bye Pi, did it go higher?

High Altitude Ballooning (HAB) head honcho and Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team member Dave Akerman has grabbed some spectacular images of Blighty from the stratosphere, using a Raspberry Pi eye in the sky. Devon and Cornwall from an altitude of 38.9km. Pic: Dave Akerman Devon and Cornwall from an altitude of …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Visiting Swindon

    Dave noted: "If you have to go to Swindon it's best to do it from 39km whilst looking somewhere else."

    Never were truer words spoken.

  2. Lars Silver badge

    Air traffic safety

    How is that dealt with. Could such an "payload" not be dangerous in a jet engine.

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: Air traffic safety

      NOTAM - CAA flight approval, all sorted in advance. Dave knows his business.

      1. Lars Silver badge

        Re: Air traffic safety

        Yes, that is as I had expected, still the route prediction for a balloon can't be much to rely on. Nice stuff, all the same.

        1. Annihilator
          Boffin

          Re: Air traffic safety

          " still the route prediction for a balloon can't be much to rely on."

          Consider how long that the balloon would be in range of an aircraft though. It'll pass through the altitude ranges within minutes if not seconds. Even if it were left in the corridor for a prolonged period of time, the chances of hitting it would still be neglible.

          Combine those two probabilities, and you're pretty safe. 3-dimensional space is a lot bigger than you imagine.

          1. Ru

            Re: Air traffic safety

            3-dimensional space is a lot bigger than you imagine.

            ...and we use an awful lot less of it than you'd expect, too.

          2. Michael Dunn
            Headmaster

            Re: Air traffic safety

            " 3-dimensional space is a lot bigger than you imagine."

            Mandatory quote from H2G2, please!

          3. Lars Silver badge
            Pint

            Re: Air traffic safety

            "the chances of hitting it would still be negligible". As far as air traffic safety is concerned, If you have had a look at was has happened, there is absolutely nothing that can be negligible. But I had a good answer to my question, no additional questions, and I still feel happier without a lot of birds flying around at take off.

    2. daveake

      Re: Air traffic safety

      A jet engine would spit it out without noticing. The payload is smaller, much lighter, and much much more fragile than the (Harrods) frozen chickens that Rolls Royce fire into their engines for tests.

      All aircraft are warned in advance by NOTAM, as part of the process we go through to obtain permission for the flight.

      1. Matthew 3

        Re: Air traffic safety

        I know the associated story has been debunked by Snopes but, still, I have to add:

        "Thaw the chickens first".

        1. Charles 9

          Re: Air traffic safety

          "I know the associated story has been debunked by Snopes but, still, I have to add:

          "Thaw the chickens first"."

          Because the MythBusters showed that hardened, frozen chickens DO tend to wreak more havoc than the soft, fleshy thawed birds. The story itself may have been debunked, but the idea turned out to be plausible.

  3. Ralph B
    Big Brother

    Well, thanks a lot for that!

    Now I have Alan Parsons "Eye In The Sky" stuck in my head.

    "I am the eye in the sky

    Looking at you

    I can read your mind

    I am the maker of rules

    Dealing with fools

    I can cheat you blind

    And I don't need to see any more

    To know that

    I can read your mind, I can read your mind"

    Might be the Google company song.

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Well, thanks a lot for that!

      Might well be, given that the "Eye in the Sky" in the song is those ubiquitous surveillance domes on casino ceilings.

      The lyrics make much more sense when you know that (as does the rest of the album)

  4. btrower

    Re: anyone confused by the headline has either obliterated all memory of Tom Jones or

    Surely you can get medication for whatever caused this to intrude on your thoughts.

    1. Annihilator
      Coat

      Re: anyone confused by the headline has either obliterated all memory of Tom Jones or

      "Doctor, doctor, I keep singing Delilah"

      "Sounds like Tom Jones syndrome"

      "Is it common?"

      "It's not unusual"

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My, my pi?

    Wasn't that a "pop-up restaurant" specializing in pies named after famous British people like (ahem) Christopher Columbus?

  6. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Joke

    Why did the chicken cross the road?

    It saw Dave approaching with a pi...

  7. Benchops

    "needs to watch this."

    For a wide range of values of "needs"

  8. Stevie

    Bah!

    I remember Tom Jones, but if you want to make a pun based on his songs you should at least take the elementary step of making your version scan to the meter of the tune if you want the reader to have any chance of appreciating how clever you've been.

    Or not, as in this case. My entire post is, of course, a parody of the hit "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood" which you spotted unless you actually expected the rhythm and subject matter of it to match that of the song, in which case you are SOL.

  9. Arachnoid
    Thumb Up

    So unlike the idiom there is good from having Pi in the Sky

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Happy

      Bugritt! I was going to say something like that

  10. Arachnoid

    Bugritt

    I hope there are no bugs or the project is doomed........WE`RE DOOMED I tell you Captain Mainwaring!

  11. as2003

    Why do the balloons burst? Is it because atmospheric pressure drops and the balloons expand too much, or the low temperature causes the rubber to become brittle? Or a combination maybe?

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      The gas expands as the balloon rises, and the rubber can only take so much. So, when it's swollen to its limit, it goes bang. I don't believe the low temperature is a factor.

  12. The Vociferous Time Waster
    Linux

    More down to earth...

    I have a more down to earth use for one of my RPi - It is currently hooked up to a webcam and WiPi adapter to broadcast live Duckling Cam. If you fancy your daily dose of cute check out http://bambuser.com/channel/duckcamuk

    It was fairly simple to set up for live streaming and gives me 15fps of 320x240 in a couple of hundred kbits/s

    Penguin because it's running on linux and it's a bird.

    1. Annihilator
      Thumb Up

      Re: More down to earth...

      Sweeeeeeet! :-)

    2. Trustme

      Re: More down to earth...

      So is that duck pi?

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