There were some moments of surprise and confusion this morning. There was a bright "star" in the east suspended over the ridgeline of Snowshoe Mountain. But, it wasn't rising, it was moving in the opposite direction. Binoculars revealed a double-lobed shape. Some internet searching, conducted after a 40 min power outage, revealed that this was likely a Gryphon Stratollite balloon manufactured by World View Enterprises. Colorado news outlets report that it is flying a scientific mission for NASA.
World View has not published (that I could find) the dimensions of the balloon assembly. However, they state that the upper balloon has a nominal volume of 23,000 m3. Assuming a spherical volume (crude approximation), this works out to a diameter of about 35 m. From the measured angular dimensions and elevation above the horizon, the estimated distance was about 55 mi (89.5 km) and height was about 62,000 ft (19 km) (with large uncertainty).
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| AT60mm ED f/6 telescope + Olympus E-M5iii camera. |
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