Astrocam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Astrocam is a model rocket with a built-in camera for taking aerial photographs.
The Astrocam comes from the American manufacturer Estes and it can be flown by B6-4-and C6-7-propellants. The Astrocam was available as kit or as ready-to-fly model. The camera used 110 film and was mounted in the nose cone of the rocket with the aperture perpendicular to the main axis of the rocket. A mirror held in a hood was used like a periscope to enable the camera to look rearward. The camera needs to be manually advanced and "cocked" by pulling a string attached to spring-loaded shutter taut. When the nose cone is placed on the rocket body, the string is placed between the nose cone and the body so that when the ejection charge of the engine expels the nose cone, the string is released causing one frame of film to be exposed. Since the rocket is not steerable, the photographer can not determine what the camera will photograph.
A version of the Astrocam called the Astrocam 110 is also available, and the Estes Snapshot is very similar as well. [1] A modern version of the Astrocam is the Oracle, which shoots video. A newer video version, called the Astrovision, is also available.
