Space

There's currently a bit of a trend of sending cameras into space. Usually, you load up a protective case with a cheap cellphone or compact camera and a GPS transmitter, and then you send it into the sky on a weather balloon. Once it gets high enough into the vacuum, the balloon pops, and the whole unit hurtles to the ground, eventually slowed by the parachute. Then you just follow the GPS signals to find it, and grab your awesome images.

It was just over 45 years ago that it happened — August 23rd, 1966. The Lunar Orbiter transmitted back an image of the Earth as seen from the Moon — the first ever image with the entire planet in frame. Given the technology at the time and the early stage of the space program, how did they possibly manage to send a camera up in the probe, take a photograph, develope the film, scan it, and then beam it back to Earth? This video from 2007 talks about the incredible process:

Did you go out and capture any images of the Perseid Meteor Shower this weekend? Well, even if you didn't, you can still enjoy this excellent image of one of the space rocks burning up in the atmosphere. But, unlike all of the meteor shower images that are showing up on Flickr and Twitter right now, this one was taken from space. 

A few days ago, we came across this image over on The Atlantic's "In Focus" blog of NASA astronaut Rex Walheim holding a DSLR. Attached to it is a giant flash rig shrouded in some kind of coat.