by Monday’s total solar eclipse may be over, but the excitement continues for a retired scientist who captured the rare event with a balloon-borne telescope.
David Hunter, from Florenceville-Bristol, was already squarely on the path of totality – where the moon completely covers the sun.
But his project aimed to get even closer, and stream the eclipse live in real time in the event of cloud cover, by attaching a payload with five cameras and a telescope to a large balloon.
Even with clear skies, the YouTube live stream had 16,000 views as of Wednesday.
Retired scientist David Hunter holds the payload, which contains computers and cameras, before launch. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
Images obtained from the payload show the moon’s shadow moving across the earth during the eclipse, a feature that would not be so clearly visible from the ground.
University of New Brunswick students Olivia DeMerchant and Ethan Garnier were part of engineering and design teams that managed to capture those images.
DeMerchant was tasked with finding a way to keep the six-foot-tall payload from rotating away from the sun, while Garnier worked on an electrical system to track the sun’s position.
LOOK | Travel with the payload recovery team:
The live stream back to ground was useful for DeMerchant, who was able to listen to the Florenceville-Bristol address from Fredericton.
Although Garnier saw the launch in person, he said it was just as exciting to see the payload images.
“There was one [image] where, when it rose to its highest height, you could see the curvature of the earth and the blue aura around it,” said Garnier.
“It’s really a breathtaking picture.”
University of New Brunswick students designed a mechanism to limit the rotation of the payload, so its cameras could track the sun properly. (Submitted by Olivia DeMerchant)
There was one notable snag, Hunter said, because the camera failed to capture the moment of totality.
That’s because a protective solar filter placed over the camera didn’t work as intended.
“At full time the filter was supposed to be removed and allow us to see the corona,” Hunter said.
David Hunter and his team launch a balloon-borne solar telescope in Florenceville-Bristol ahead of the total eclipse on April 8, 2024. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
“For some reason, which we haven’t analyzed yet, the filter got halfway through.
The launch itself was memorable for both the Hunter team and spectators, especially with the winds picking up.
“It was very touch and go. Inflating the balloon, it was bobbing all around the ground and it could have destroyed the ground,” he said. “It was a great relief to get him up in the air.”
Monday was the fourth time the balloon took off, Hunter said, but the first time with clear skies.
“When we launched the balloon before, it went up. We could see it for a short while, then it would go through the clouds and we couldn’t see it visually,” he said.
“But this time, it was amazing … you could look at it visually with your naked eye or binoculars during this flight, it was really cool.”
Hunter’s balloon was equipped with five cameras, one of which was attached to a telescope, to capture the moments before and during the total solar eclipse. (Submitted by David Hunter)
Although the balloon could travel as high as 30 kilometers, Hunter said Monday’s flight was limited to about 20 kilometers.
“We had to limit his height because we wanted him to still land in the province,” he said. “I was afraid he was going to go further south down to … the Gagetown military base or in the Bay of Fundy.”
Within a few hours, Hunter said, three volunteers were able to retrieve the payload just south of Mactaquac Provincial Park.
“The whole thing wasn’t perfect, but from our point of view it was pretty close to what we wanted,” he said.
While people have sent balloons up during eclipses before, Hunter said this project was unique in that it used a tracking telescope and live streaming images of the event.
Hunter’s next step will be to analyze the temperature, pressure, altitude and motion data collected by the payload.
“We hope to recover information, flight data … that could be useful for future flights or people doing something similar,” he said.
