For the past month artist Kevin Schmidt has been readying a project in Alberta. His transmissions began arriving last week.

February 7, 2012 9:36:45 AM PST (CA)

Today at around noon I am sending my homemade 4x5 on a weather balloon to take a picture of the horizon from the edge of the stratosphere. I am working with an amateur balloon launch team in Edmonton - Barry and Gareth Sloan, a father and son team. Our launch is called BEAR-9, as there have been 8 previous BEAR flights.

You can track our balloon flight over the internet. Go to http://aprs.fi and in the track call-sign window put in ve6atv-11 then you can watch our flight over Google Maps.


February 7, 2012 9:43:48 AM PST (CA

We haven't started up our GPS broadcaster yet, so you can't track us til we actually launch.

February 7, 2012 9:53:27 AM PST (CA)

Barry and Gareth have been running predictions to see where our balloon will land. Apparently if we launch today as planned, the balloon will land in the Edmonton Airport. So we have to delay our launch. Saturday is looking good.

February 11, 2012 10:16:29 AM PST (CA)

We are rushing to get everything ready to go. I discovered that my shutter release motor wouldn't work at -16 degrees. It can be up to -60 where the balloon is going, so we are trying to come up with a solution. Right now the camera is in the deep freezer to test.

We are hoping to launch by 12 noon Mountain Standard Time.

You can track our balloon flight over the internet. Go to http://aprs.fi and in the track call-sign window put in: ve6atv-11
Once we launch the balloon that call sign will work and you can watch our flight over Google Maps.

February 11, 2012 10:37:57 AM PST (CA)

Seeing as it's 11:37am and we're still testing the shutter release.... I have a feeling we'll be launching more like 1pm. I'll keep you posted.

February 11, 2012 12:09:16 PM PST (CA)

New shutter trigger almost done. I think we'll be launching at 2ish.

February 11, 2012 1:02:14 PM PST (CA)

We're finally ready to launch - but we only have 3 hours of daylight left, which means we won't be able to find the camera on the ground - it'll be dark when it lands.

So we have to launch tomorrow. Sorry.

9am I promise.

February 12, 2012 9:13:20 AM PST (CA)

We are about to launch. The tracker is broadcasting so you can track us. Go to http://aprs.fi and in the track call-sign window put in: ve6atv-11. You can watch our flight over Google Maps.

February 12, 2012 11:00:25 AM PST (CA)

The Balloon is launched! Current altitude 47000 feet! Halfway to photo threshold.

Go to http://aprs.fi and in the track call-sign window put in: ve6atv-11. If you put this in the track call sign window, you will also see the vehicle I am in to chase the balloon: ve6atv-11,ve6srv

Wish me luck to find it when the camera falls after the balloon bursts - probably 110000-120000 feet.

February 12, 2012 11:02:20 AM PST (CA)

ps - Some of you have been concerned about falling in the lakes. The lakes are all frozen. A benefit of winter

February 12, 2012 12:10:14 PM PST (CA)

On the website if you click on ve6atv-11 you can see our altitude. Right now it looks like we are going for a height record!

February 12, 2012 12:13:04 PM PST (CA)

The balloon just popped. It's falling. We're trying to get under it now.

February 12, 2012 1:38:15 PM PST (CA)

We got the camera! The camera took a picture!

February 13, 2012 5:52:13 AM PST (CA)

We had a video camera on the package pointed in the same direction as my 4x5 camera, and a beeper attached to the shutter trigger motor. This way, when the shutter was triggered, we could look back at the video footage to determine where the camera was pointed when the shutter opened.

This is the video frame from when the shutter of my 4x5 camera was opened.