I've been working on a high altitude balloon along with a team of volunteers that is going to take pictures during the solar eclipse next week. The balloon has a gimballed camera (or more accurately, a gimballed mirror) that autonomously tracks the sun. Real-time video is sent down to the ground via 70cm ham radio. The comms was developed almost entirely by myself, and on previous flights we've tested it to a range of 140km. Along with the real-time video, it also uses spare bandwidth to send down high resolution imagery from several other cameras on the payload.
We'll be streaming the video to Youtube. Our channel is linked on our website. If you're not going to be in the path of the eclipse, this is a great way to participate. And even if you are in the path, this gives you a second opportunity to view it - we'll be launching from New Brunswick, Canada, which is one of the last places the eclipse will pass through.
Aside from the project website, I also wrote up a short article on one of our previous launches. It focuses primarily on the communications system since that's my contribution to the project: https://www.scd31.com/posts/real-time-balloon-video
I hope you like it, and I hope to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
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