This is awesome, in an extremely nerdy, brilliant way... Oliver Yeh and Justin Le have achieved near-space photography with a cheap digital camera, a weather balloon, a styrofaom cooler and disposable hand warmers -- and some serious ingenuity: Bellevue grad, MIT student uses helium balloon to capture near-space photos.
With this contraption, made from off-the-shelf components, the two MIT students got some stunning photos of the Earth from an estimated 93,000 feet -- about 17.5 miles high, far above the cruising altitude of commercial airplanes. They're not the first people to have photographed the Earth using helium-filled weather balloons... but they've probably done it with the lowest budget: $150.
And it was perfectly legal. The Federal Aviation Administration has concluded that the experiment did appear to meet federal rules because the balloon's payload was under four pounds. From there, these smart guys made it happen. More here: The $150 Edge-of-Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget.
Also take a look at their website, which documents their space photography endeavor, Project Icarus: 1337arts. The site includes a disclaimer that launching things into the stratosphere can be dangerous, for anyone who might be considering emulating their project.
