· Get a Cloudy Nights T-Shirt · Submit a Review / Article Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums Privacy Policy | Please read our Terms of Service | Signup and Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu… uh, User You are not logged in. [Login] Entrance · Main Index · Search · New user · Who's Online FAQ · Calendar General Astronomy >> General Observing and Astronomy Previous   Index   Next   Threaded   Pages: 1 rookie Good Night Nurse Reged: 01/14/06 Loc: St. Petersburg, FL Weather Balloons and Seeing       #5308380 - 07/08/12 02:31 PM Attachment (41 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   I’m fortunate to live in a location where I can observe weather balloons seasonally. They originate from the National Weather Service Office in Ruskin, Florida. The balloons are released at 92 weather stations by the US and its territories and nearly 900 locations all around the world simultaneously at 0 and 12 UTC. NOAA Balloon Link The data is downloaded to many countries’ national weather services' super computers and becomes the foundation of all weather forecasting around the world. The balloons carry a radiosonde that measures and transmits information back to the weather station. It measures air pressure, elevation, temperature, dew point, wind direction and wind speed. The balloons rise at about 1000 feet per minute, expand to the size of a 2 story house, and shatter about 100,000 ft. or around 20 miles high. The radiosonde box returns safely to the ground carried by a small red parachute, and if found, can be mailed in an included prepaid envelope for reconditioning. Post Extras:       rookie Good Night Nurse Reged: 01/14/06 Loc: St. Petersburg, FL Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: rookie]       #5308382 - 07/08/12 02:32 PM Attachment (40 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   I first spotted the balloons in June of 2010. Favorable conditions require the sun has have set, the sky dark enough for contrast, and the balloon high enough to fly above earth’s shadow. For my location that occurs during the longest days of the year. The balloons are visible for about ½ hour and with the naked eye, look like the first star in the sky but are seen long before starlight. They drift with the wind and are never in the same place from night tonight. Through the telescope, they appear as a bright orange ball, translucent, absorbing and reflecting light from the sun below the horizon. I’ve been taking pictures of them with my scope. It’s difficult because of the drift. The balloons fly through an eyepiece field of view in less than a second, so it has to be constantly tracked. I’ve learned to use my scope’s hand controller from observing the display screen on the back of my pocket digital camera, mounted to an eyepiece. I tried a webcam but its field of view is much too small to keep up with the balloon motion. The biggest challenge is capturing them shattering. It’s quite a show! Post Extras:       rookie Good Night Nurse Reged: 01/14/06 Loc: St. Petersburg, FL Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: rookie]       #5308385 - 07/08/12 02:33 PM Attachment (37 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   I contacted the Weather Service meteorologists and sent them some images. They promptly invited me to observe a balloon launch, and I was able to do that last week with my family and several members of the astronomy club. The meteorologists were gracious hosts, gave us a tour of the weather station and allowed me to participate in the balloon launch. It was so much fun! They also showed me how to access and basically interpret data transmitted from the balloon. Post Extras:       rookie Good Night Nurse Reged: 01/14/06 Loc: St. Petersburg, FL Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: rookie]       #5308401 - 07/08/12 02:45 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Radiosonde data is available for all balloon transmissions globally at the NOAA/ESRL Radiosonde Database web site: RAOBS It can be viewed in either digital or graph (skew plot) format. The information can be sorted by date & time, country, state, and weather station identifiers. A helpful legend for interpreting all those numbers is found at Balloon Data Output Format An iPhone app is available for data titled RAOB. Historic information is also available, possibly further back than some of you have been alive. Viewing the am balloon data can help predict balloon location in the sky in the evening because upper prevailing winds don’t change as quickly as winds closer to the ground, or so I was told by the meteorologists. I’ve never read or seen any astronomers accessing this data. Would high altitude winds, changing wind directions at different elevations (indicating turbulence) that affect seeing be helpful knowledge to the observer or imager with a telescope? It might be interesting with special nights of seeing, either good or bad to review balloon data near your home. You may find information that correlates with your observations. Reviewing morning data may be helpful in predicting seeing conditions. It’s also may be helpful to know that this data is available shortly after the balloon shatters which would universally be around 9:00pm EDT. If you access that information, it could be real time information for your time at the telescope. In the past week our evening surface sea breezes have been from the west, but the greater velocity, high atomspheric winds have come from the east, a 180 degrees different direction. No wonder the stars twinkle. Post Extras:       shrevestan professor emeritus Reged: 04/19/12 Loc: Shreveport, LA Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: rookie]       #5308404 - 07/08/12 02:47 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing the pics. Post Extras:       Coolkid70 super member Reged: 04/19/11 Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: shrevestan]       #5309090 - 07/08/12 10:55 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Thanks for posting these! It's very exciting to see weather balloons / equipment in action. I do find it kind of funny that the first picture says "Made in Mexico". Post Extras:       roscoe curmudgeon Reged: 02/04/09 Loc: NW Mass, inches from VT Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: Coolkid70]       #5309536 - 07/09/12 10:16 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   I've never seen a balloon in flight, but have recovered two radiosondes sent aloft in Albany, NY, about 65 miles west. I was surprised that they drifted that far, and that two - at different times - landed within 1/4 mile of each other. I'm also amazed that they expand that large!! Russ Post Extras:       JimMo I'd Rather Do It Myself Reged: 01/08/07 Loc: Under the SE Michigan lightdom... Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: roscoe]       #5309786 - 07/09/12 01:09 PM Attachment (24 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   I saw one a few years ago naked eye and just happened to be finishing up work on my dob. It was collimated and the mirror was at ambient so I rolled it out to take a look. I was able to snap a couple of pics with a point and shoot hand held up to the eyepiece. Post Extras:       JimMo I'd Rather Do It Myself Reged: 01/08/07 Loc: Under the SE Michigan lightdom... Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: JimMo]       #5309794 - 07/09/12 01:13 PM Attachment (25 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   As I was looking through the eyepiece it exploded and snapped this a couple of seconds after. Post Extras:       rookie Good Night Nurse Reged: 01/14/06 Loc: St. Petersburg, FL Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: JimMo]       #5310185 - 07/09/12 05:43 PM Attachment (22 downloads) Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Thanks for adding your pictures, Jim. You did a good job just holding your camera to the eyepiece. I have one as well. It's a lucky shot. You can see the radiosonde and tether at the bottom of the picture. It falls much faster than the balloon flakes. Post Extras:       rookie Good Night Nurse Reged: 01/14/06 Loc: St. Petersburg, FL Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: rookie]       #5328461 - 07/21/12 03:43 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   I was able to capture a video of a weather balloon shattering. You can watch it here. rookie cam Sorry about the ac kicking in. Post Extras:       Man in a Tub Postmaster Reged: 10/28/08 Loc: Fogpatch, CA Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: rookie]       #5328549 - 07/21/12 04:35 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Wow! That is really fine. Post Extras:       rookie Good Night Nurse Reged: 01/14/06 Loc: St. Petersburg, FL Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: Man in a Tub]       #5328674 - 07/21/12 06:23 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Thanks Todd! Post Extras:       JimMo I'd Rather Do It Myself Reged: 01/08/07 Loc: Under the SE Michigan lightdom... Re: Weather Balloons and Seeing [Re: rookie]       #5331710 - 07/23/12 04:50 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Excellent video! That's exactly what I saw in the eyepiece when the one I was tracking blew up. Post Extras:       Pages: 1 Previous   Index   Next   Threaded   Extra information 12 registered and 26 anonymous users are browsing this forum. 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