Weather Balloon Panorama Video


We’ve been planning to do a flight with our Kodak PixPro SP360 camera for over a year now and we’ve finally done it. We launched from our usual spot just outside Maricopa CA around 9 am in ~100 degree (F) weather. We generally don’t fly cameras but this was a joint launch so there were 3 cameras on board. An upward looking first gen. GoPro to capture the balloon pop, a horizon looking G12, and a downward looking Kodak PixPro SP 360. Additionally we had the usual Tracksoar V1.2 and SPOT3 backup trackers to return location and weather data as well as help us recover it. The total payload weight was just under a kilo which we placed in a small foam cooler slung below a rocketman 4ft parachute and kaymont 1000 gram balloon.

You can read much more detail from the launch, see photos, and sensor data here: https://www.zinkwazi.com/hab/

You can watch our 360 video from launch to just before burst below:

 

We learned a lot from this flight and plan on improving our 360 video rig by adding a second SP360, and some method of active stabilization to make the video more watchable. We hope to fly the new payload in time for the solar eclipse in August.