Low cost multi-purpose balloon-borne platform for wide-field imaging and video observation

摘要

Atmosphere layers, especially the troposphere, hinder the astronomicalobservation. For more than 100 years astronomers have tried observing fromballoons to avoid turbulence and extinction. New developments in cardsizecomputers, RF equipment and satellite navigation have democratised the accessto the stratosphere. As a result of a ProAm collaboration with the DaedalusTeam we have developed a low-cost multi-purpose platform with stratosphericballoons carrying up to 3 kg of scientific payload. The Daedalus Team is anamateur group that has been launching sounding probes since 2010. Since thenthe first two authors have provided scienti fic payloads for nighttime flightswith the purpose of technology demonstration for astronomical observation. Wehave successfully observed meteor showers (Geminids 2012, Camelopardalis 2014,Quadrantids 2016 and Lyrids 2016) and city light pollution emission with imageand video sensors covering the 400-1000nm range.