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Next Meeting 29th June - Space Seraph


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The next meeting of the Long Eaton Astronomical Society is on Thursday 29th June at the usual time of 7pm. This month we shall hear about the school's latest attempt at near space flight. The "Space Seraph" mission is a high altitude balloon launch with the aim of flying to 32km above the Earth. The mission is due to launch at 09:35 on June 28th as part of the Long Eaton School Eco day. The balloon will carry a multitude of experiments and a video camera and has been funded by the Institute Of Physics.

 

For more details read more on the blog here: https://mpole2011.wordpress.com/2017/06/21/space-seraph-race-to-the-heavens/

 

Refreshments will be available from 6:30pm with solar observing prior to the presentation by Mr M Perkins (Mission director and mad fool who thought this would be a good idea :facepalm: ). Members free, visitors suggested donation £2 towards refreshments etc. Under 16's welcome but must be accompanied by an adult please.

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Sorry I missed this, I didnt have enough reserves left for an evening out so had to rest up.

 

Hope you get the payload sorted. You need someone with a drone cam to do a sweep if you know the rough area to locate it.

 

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we have a hunch where it could be and a few of us are going up there this weekend to have a hunt. We have narrowed it down to around half a km radius but this is all based on statistics. As we all know, 11 out of 10 statisticians only get it right half the time, the other 75% of the time they are wrong.

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Give us an update on this Mike.

Did you launch the balloon ok.

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The launch was flawless and everything was going well. Sadly it has come back down in Derbyshire, possibly the worst place possible for mobile phone signal which we need for the trackers to work. We've narrowed it down to around a square km of pretty poor terrain so searching the area is not easy.

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Thats a shame.

I hope all goes well and you manage to locate it.

Do you think you made your attempted altitude.

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We expect it was just over 32km. There are a few going up over the weekend to search and I am hoping to go up tomorrow for a couple of hours.

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search team have just reported back having searched the lower half of my hunch. I fully expected it to be in the top half so I will have a look tomorrow. If not there then we have to start spiralling out from there. Although very frustrating it's also exciting. It's the most extreme game of hide and seek I have ever played!

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It's about a foot cube and is orange (unless all the paint came off in the rain) with a 3ft red parachute. Unless it's in a field the chances are it's in the canopy of a very dense wooded area.

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Back after a 4 mile ramble / scramble. I remain certain it's in the old quarry. Absolutely no signal in there but there was a side of it we couldn't see and that would be the face it would be heading towards as it fell. Another day trip up there to get round the other side is required.

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Well I wish you all the luck in the world finding it in that lot.

That is some quarry. :blink:

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You really have your work cut out there Mike. I hope it is still orange so it will be slightly easier to pick out from a distance. Good luck. :thumbsup:

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Needle in a haystack would be easier.

 

Best of luck Mike, I know the area pretty well been up there a few times for Hawfinches.

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