Trees are Rocket Magnets

11 responses to “Trees are Rocket Magnets”

1. 

   goofy comparison

   May 2, 2006 at 12:18 am

   You Be Careful With your Eyes. A just looked at the large version. This Is yer Dad speakin get goggles on 😉

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2. 

   Telstar Logistics

   May 2, 2006 at 1:05 am

   Great timing on the capture!

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3. 

   Vanita

   May 2, 2006 at 3:55 am

   I see you choose to use NASA’s original launch pad design. ‘-}

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4. 

   jurvetson

   May 2, 2006 at 5:02 pm

   Vanita: Good connection! Looks like the Mercury Redstone pad, just a bit more flammable….

   Telstar: This thing really pops up fast since it quickly evacuates all of its fuel (>95% of its weight). So it is very hard to capture on film. In the past, only video worked sometimes (15fps could miss the action), and they were fuzzy frame grabs:
   

   With a regular camera, the human reflex is not fast enough to capture the rocket in frame (there is no signal before it pops). So I set up the camera with a 16mm wide angle lens and used the motor drive to fire off a stream of 1/8000 sec exposures.

   For a sense of how fast it pops, note that this photo was the very next frame from the burst you see in my photostream (giving photostream a literal meaning =)

   BC2 in Notes: That thing is the tube that held the baking soda. You can see it shooting out in the earlier photo. It slides into the neck of a ½ liter PET bottle which is the pressure chamber (those soda bottles have been designed to withstand huge internal pressures). The black part is a rubber cork tightened with a wing nut to hold in the pressure until it reaches a high level, and it all shoots out the back leaving a big plume of white froth. It was about 2 cups of vinegar and 5 tablespoons of baking soda.

   I posted a Video on Revver of my first rocket launch….

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5. 

   angry shock

   May 2, 2006 at 11:50 pm

   Look what I found

   You can make bubbles with a similar recipe! Surely you knew… wonder now if your bubbly photos are due to this same formula?

   Btw, if you search "baking soda" in google images you are among the first pics. 🙂

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6. 

   mixed ink

   May 5, 2006 at 6:46 am

   Thank you Steve for your wise advices; me an my rookie cosmonaut (occasionnaly called my "son") we are on the way to drink 3 liters of coca cola to build ZE rocket "baking soda powered"… To be continued 😉

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7. 

   mixed ink

   May 6, 2006 at 3:58 pm

   Haha also thank you alieness for your contribution. I feel I’ve got the right dosages now 🙂

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8. 

   mixed ink

   May 8, 2006 at 5:34 pm

   Welldone… About the rocket, everything is in the cork. About the camera, my own doesnt play in the same range than your canon. Too bad for the picture, but the great point is that we had a lot of fun drinking soda the whole week-end. Thank you again. Rockets rocks 🙂
   Here are the pictures of our experience : http://www.flickr.com/photos/bc2/sets/72057594128078587/

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9. 

   Helena-Reet

   May 13, 2006 at 10:11 pm

   Iccccccccccccc********************
   Cool shot!

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10. 

    Helena-Reet

    May 13, 2006 at 10:11 pm

    You jump like a cat, man 😛

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11. 

    Helena-Reet

    May 13, 2006 at 10:12 pm

    😀

    Reply