£200 space balloon's amazing earth pictures

WITH its crystal clear images of the Earth's surface, these spectacular pictures could be from a Nasa satellite.

But they were taken with an ordinary digital camera – strapped underneath a helium balloon. Tony Rafaat spent just £200 making a weather balloon, which reached an altitude of 35,843m (117,595ft).

As the balloon rose higher, the camera – fixed inside a small Styrofoam block – took pictures of its journey.

Mr Rafaat, 41, from Alberta in Canada, then used an onboard transmitter to track and retrieve it.

The amateur scientist and two friends spent two years perfecting their device – which they called the Southern Alberta Balloon Launch Experiment or SABLE.