A 19-year-old boy from UK has captured stunning images of Earth from space. The images looked like they were taken from NASA's multi-million pound satellite, but were in fact actually taken from a second-hand camera worth £30.



Adam Cudworth from Ombersley, Worcestershire, captured the amazing images using a helium balloon and a Canon A570 camera bought on eBay some 18 months ago.


Cudworth, a student of University of Nottingham with Physics A-Level as background in science, successfully captured the incredible images on a £200 (roughly $320 US), budget.



He spent 40 hours working on a home-made device which consisted of a GPS, radio and microprocessor. The device soared to a height of 110,210 feet when he released it last Thursday, Daily Telegraph reported.

Apart from the three key tools, he also positioned a Canon A570 digital camera, a small video camera, two temperature sensors and two high-performance solar panels in the insulated box which he secured to a high altitude, two metre latex balloon on a parachute, CTV news reported.

Apart from the three key tools, he also positioned a Canon A570 digital camera, a small video camera, two temperature sensors and two high-performance solar panels in the insulated box which he secured to a high altitude, two metre latex balloon on a parachute, CTV news reported.

Cudworth then attached his contraption, dubbed HABE (High Altitude Balloon Experiments), to an air balloon and launched HABE into space where it captured NASA-quality photos of Earth from a height of 110,210 ft (roughly 20 miles above ground). Once HABE landed back on Earth (after the balloon burst in space), Cudworth was able to retrieve the photos by locating HABE using the GPS chip and radio transmitter he included.

The home-made device took about two-and-a-half hours to float over 20 miles up into Earth's stratosphere. Cudworth used the GPS and radio transmitter to keep a track of the balloon's progress and to locate its landing spot which was about 30 miles away from his home.

Cudworth said that his incredible work was nothing more than "a little project." "It's just a bit of hobby, really. I just wanted to set myself a challenge - but I'm amazed at the results. I saw a guy who did a similar thing a couple of years back and I just wanted to recreate them - but better," he said according to The Sun.

"I have no background in astrophysics or anything like that - I'm just an engineering student. People think it's something that costs millions of pounds, but I've proved you can do it on just a £200 (roughly $320 US), budget," he added.