Today as I got into my car I realized that someone had broken into it and ransacked my glovebox and center console. I couldn’t nail down exactly when it happened but I couldn’t help but feel violated. Someone else in my neighborhood also had a break in. I decided to do something about it. I immediately went to the closest store and grabbed a cheap webcam and prepared to make a motion triggered surveillance system. (Man, I love Linux).
I’ve recently gotten into astronomy and astrophotography since I got an 8″ telescope for my birthday in 2010. Since then I have found that my Android phone is a must have tool! This is a list my favorite and most useful Android apps for astronomy. All of the ones mentioned here are free or have a free version. I suggest donating or upgrading on all of them if you like them to help compensate the programmers for their hard work.
UPDATED with new app (see end of post for the new addition).
With the payload tested in a rocket, everything looked ready to go. I took it off the breadboard and built it onto a strip board PCB to make everything sturdy.
The next step was to create the payload box. The professor had done this before so he gave us tips on using foam core poster board, hot glue and HVAC tape. We chose to cover ours in mylar by applying a spray adhesive to the surface, then laying a sheet of mylar on it, and using credit cards to squeegee it flat as best as possible. The mylar was applied to the insides of the box before gluing, and the outside afterward.
Working with a professor at my college and Carolina Edge of Space in May of 2010 I, along with a small group of friends, sent a weather balloon 74,642 feet into the sky. This post is mainly about the payload I designed, built and tested for the project.
This project was inspired by many seen recently online where students have been sending cheap payloads into the stratosphere. It started around December 2009 when we all met for the first time to discuss the project. It turns out that one of the professors in the Earth Sciences department focuses on remote sensing (gathering data about earth from satellites, etc.) who had done some weather balloon projects in the past. We all got together to discuss a possible launch.
Many people think the fronts of cars look life faces. There is even an entire Flickr set devoted to car faces! Well, ever since I saw my house for this first time, I thought my house look like a face. The windows are perfect eyes and the garage looks like a mouth.
I needed to put my anthropomorphic house theory to the test. (Yes, I had to look up how to spell anthropomorphic.) For Halloween, I decided to use my house face palette to create a scary face. Adam and I had different visions for our beauty, so we sketched out our ideas using paint to end our squabble. Yes we are that anal retentive. Our ideas were:
Idea 1: White Pointy Teeth with Black Background
Idea 2: White Square Teeth with Black Background
Idea 3: Black Square Teeth
Idea 4: Black Pointy Teeth
Although we thought Idea 1 would likely look the best, we decided to go with Idea 4. We figured cutting out black teeth would be easier than trying to create a black background. This is how we did it.
Materials:
Tools:
We cut the edges off each garbage bag to create black squares of material. From there, we cut out isosceles triangle shapes to use as the teeth. We didn’t measure any sizes, but we did use the square pattern in our garage door to measure sizes.
In the two top windows, we added a pupil to add to the eye effect. Using the double sided tape, we put up each tooth one at a time.
Because we didn’t officially measure the teeth sizes, the last two teeth had to be cut smaller to make them fit. We did this to the last two teeth so there wouldn’t be one tooth that was noticeably smaller than the rest. This way the overall visual sizes of the teeth look balanced.
More double sided tape was used on the bottom teeth than the top because we were concerned water or wind might more easily remove these teeth. The bags had a bit of static cling which also helped them stick to the garage door nicely.
We lost daylight pretty quickly, but I couldn’t help but snap a nighttime shot. Of course that adds to the drama of our scary faced house!
Here is a daytime shot from the next day.
Overall this was an easy and fun project. It only took Adam and I less than an hour to complete the entire project, including creating idea sketches in paint. Can you turn your house into a face? Send us your results!
