Colin Rich's Camera-Balloon Videotapes The World From 24 Miles Up (VIDEO)

Colin Rich's Camera-Balloon Videotapes The World From 24 Miles Up (VIDEO)

It's nice to see that the global recession hasn't kept artists from low-budget innovation.

The Atlantic's Daily Dish turned us on to a cinematographer in Oxnard, CA, who built a homemade high-altitude weather balloon with two second-hand digital cameras he bought on Ebay (for only $45) that captured beautiful video images from 24 miles above the Earth's surface.

DIY-tinkerer Colin Rich built his device with styrofoam and duct-tape to prevent the cameras from freezing at temperatures below -50F.

The balloon eventually burst at around 125,000 feet, which triggered a parachute to deploy, allowing the device to float safely down to land in Santa Paula, 15 miles away from where it was launched.

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