Early days...

I've long been fascinated by the plethora of successful amateur attempts at near-space photography that are well-documented across the web, and have frequently toyed with the idea of attempting such a project myself.  I've been overseas for the past two years, and always promised myself that upon my return, I'd embark on such a venture and try, with the assistance of a few friends, to send a small payload into the stratosphere and (with any luck) back.

I'm no rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, meteorologist or really anything that gives me any insight into such an endeavor, but I do have a few ideas on what I hope to achieve:

• Low Cost:  Most components will be cheap, off-the-shelf components or stuff I already own.  Many others have achieved tracking through the use of a Raspberry Pi - I hope to achieve most of what I want to do with a small point-and-shoot camera and basic Android smartphone.
• Real-Time Tracking:  The one useful skill I do have is software development.  Unfortunately, this doesn't extend to Android as yet, so I'm taking this as an opportunity to brush up on my Android development skills in order to create an app that will be able to provide real-time (within cell coverage limits) tracking and imagery, and hopefully assist in the recovery of the payload upon its return to Earth.
• Altitude and Flight Path:  I'm based in Melbourne, Australia.  At present, I'm hoping to launch the balloon from the Mornington Peninsula, when weather conditions are favorable for a flight east across the state, allowing capture of imagery across Westernport Bay and South Gippsland, to an altitude of between 25,000 and 35,000 meters.

Hopefully, I'll have everything together and ready for launch by sometime in late autumn or winter of 2014.  In the meantime, I hope to document everything from equipment gathering and testing to payload prototyping and application development.