High altitude balloon
Taken by James J Zelazny jr on August 18, 2016 @
Hilton,NY
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Hello,
Yesterday was interesting and ironic to say the least.
While taking a break from my payload/balloon project here at my house,went outside to relax.
The sky was clear blue @ about 2pm EST here in Hilton,NY.
Daydreaming about my upcoming balloon flight I looked to the sky and clearly saw a bright object to my Western sky about a 45 degree angle.
It almost scared me a bit seeing such a bright object and immediately thought it was the space station passing over.
However,it was not moving...at least not fast if it was.
The thought maybe Venus or bright star.
After looking with binoculars,it took the shape of a disk which made me very excited.I could see clearly the sunlight was reflecting on one side facing the sun where I determined it was in our atmosphere but at very high altitude.I called a local observatory in Rochester,NY (RIT) and they said there was no planets or stars visible in this area of the sky and tried to observe as well.Unfortunately they had some light cloud cover over the area and was unable to see anything.
By the time I returned outside,the object indeed has moved towards the East eventually directly over my house.It took an hour from the time I first saw the object.It was moving slowing towards the East.Finally after searching and making phone calls to FAA...etc...no one was available that could answer this mystery.So dug out my small telescope and focused in and to my surprise,it clearly showed a clear film multi gore balloon.
It was pretty exciting to see such a large balloon so high.I would guess it had to be the size of an average home or better?
Considering the speed (slow) I determined it was above the jet stream 100k ft or better.Just my guess basing this on size and speed.A payload could be seen somewhat,but not well enough to obtain details on my cheap scope.
I took several photos using my Canon EF 35-135 zoom lens and sending you the best of the bunch.
I have no idea where this balloon came from after searching many agencies and groups for recent activity.I hope to receive emails from some as I am now very curious to the experiment.I think it was a once in a lifetime to see something like this especially over Northern NY.Most high altitude experiments of this size are over the arctic regions.
Any information would be appreciated.
James J Zelazny jr
Photographer's website:
No URL provided.
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