On the first balloon flight,
at the last minute, Tom Boucher suggested putting some film aboard.
Perhaps the elevated radiation rate at high altitude might expose
the film. We ended buying a package of 4 x 6 photographic paper,
placing sheets of aluminum foil in between (all this in the dark
bathroom of the dark hotel room), and sending it up with the stack
facing vertical. The flight went to 120,000 feet altitude for
about 12 hours. What developed ? The scale here : the top picture's
black streak is about 2 cm long. Are these black streaks caused
by cosmic rays ?
For the October flight, we prepared a similar
package, without the foil, but using papers of varying sensitivities...
For scale, the above streak
is about 2 cm long.
(above) ~ 1 cm long streaks
(above) ~ .5 cm long streaks
(above) ~ 1 cm long streaks
(above) ~ .2 cm long streaks
(above) ~ .5 cm long streaks
(above) ~ .5 cm long streaks
(above) ~ .5 cm long streaks