2004-2005 Season

Launch Successful

Dedicated to the memory of Dr Willie Mackey (1953-2005), who had a dream to use high altitude ballooning to inspire students. This post was part of his plans and he obtained funding for it from the Ohio Space Grant Consortium.

Final Presentations 19 May 2005

Presentations for the closing Ceremonies. Powerpoint Files

Launch Day: 9 April 2005

06:20 Meet at DEB parking lot, leave for Tiffin, OH; 08:30 Arrive at Tiffin, Hedges-Boyer Park, 41d06.245m N, 83d 09.553 W; 09:30 Balloon Launch. Pocket tracker APRS: 144.340 MHz, Kenwood TH-D7A APRS 446.025. Contact: david b. snyder (216)433-2217

Open House Presentation

Post 632 Presentation at NASA GRC Explorers Open House 15 Sept 2004

Comet Machholz

Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) should be visible to the naked eye during the end of December and begining of January, if the skies in Cleveland ever clear. It is moving north, west of Orion and will be near the Pleiades near 8 Jan. It was 5.0 magnitude on 10 Dec, and may brighten to 4.0 near 10 Jan. It should be a nice binocular or camera object (20s, 50mm, f/5 or faster, 400 ASA). I saw this the night of 18 Dec. In Binoculars it was a faint diffuse ball, slightly brighter than the suburban sky. It was quite large though, 1/4 to 1/3 the radius of the moon. No tail was observed. This is what most comets look like.

Meeting: 06 April 2005

Pre-flight review, Launch rehearsal.

Meeting: 30 Mar 2005

Inflate Balloon, Launch Procedures, final issues

Meeting: 23 Mar 2005

Proceedures, Flight equipment

Meeting: 15 Mar 2005

Status, Launch Teams and Payload layout

Meeting: 09 March 2005

FoxHunt activity, Launch Teams, Equipment lists

Balloon Flight Photos On-Line

The photographs from Explorer Post 632 Flight 2005A have been uploaded to the web site

Meeting: 02 March 2005

Foxhunt Theory, GPS and NMEA Sentences

Meeting 23 Feb 2005

Continue building Balloon Sat Cubes, and interior dividers

Meeting: 16 Feb 2005

Begin Building BalloonSat payload carriers.

Meeting: 09 Feb 2005

Timer Test Measureing cold temperatures

Meeting: 03 Feb 2005

Using HOBO's

meeting: 26 Jan 2005

Our next meeting is Wednesday, 26 Jan 2005 (5PM). We will discuss and begin choosing experiments. See the suggested experiments from the 8 DEc Meeting.

Meeting: 08 Dec 2004

Continue Discussion of potential experiments. Select a few (7-8) for further investigation.

Meeting: 01 Dec 2004

Propose and discuss payloads. Determine Lead people.

Christmas Party 15 Dec 2004

Post 632 Christmas Party will be held 15 Dec 2004.

Meeting: 3 Nov 2004

Requirements and Specification Issues related to a BalloonSat

Meeting: 17 Nov 2004

Batteries and string strength

Meeting: 11 Nov 2004

Election of officers, and visit to NASA Hangar.

Meeting: 27 Oct 2004

Sensors

Meeting: 20 Oct 2004

Gas Laws and Balloons

Meeting: 13 Oct 2004

Material from the second meeting. Introduction to Ham Radio and Packet Radio.

Meeting: 6 Oct 2004

Material From First Meeting. Introduction to Ballooning and Atmosphere basics